


Age Of Living (Genesis Part 2)

by KaeAleah97



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Mild Gore, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:48:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 30,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27490714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaeAleah97/pseuds/KaeAleah97
Summary: Abel's existence was complicated beyond imagination, but for Tony, she was utterly perfect. She is content with her life beside him, only having a few bumps in the road. Abel is not naive though, for she has been around long enough to understand when challenge comes. With Tony's existence as Ironman in the air, new dangers began to emerge before the powerful woman.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	1. Abel

_A tiny butterfly flapping its wings today may lead to devastating hurricane weeks from now. For what seemed like the smallest decision can drastically change the future and twist fate before we knew it._

* * *

Her gaze shifted suddenly when the sound of flapping reached her ears as very small gusts of wind, too small to pick up by the normal human senses, blew her hair very slightly into her face. Despite the lack of power, it was noticeable enough for this particular woman. As her eyes adjusted in the dark, they focused on a pair of blue butterfly wings that quickly flapped in her direction. The poor thing must have flown out of hiding because of the barrage of fireworks that came from Stark Expo that lit up the night sky in a large number of colors.

* * *

_For it has already happened time and time again, the butterfly is always detected by the world's most world-shaking creature where its own tiny fate is soon changed by its hands. It becomes aware now that it wasn't its wings that changed the future._

* * *

Her hands gently held up to the poor thing as it landed in the palm of her hands. She enclosed her fingers around it like a protective cage so the constant explosive sounds wouldn't bother it anymore. The sound of her soothing heartbeat echoed through her whole body and very slowly began to calm the butterfly down as it began to nest itself in her warm and safe hands.

A smile crept upon her lips as she looked back to the Expo. "Only for a moment. Let's get you somewhere quiet." She spoke into her closed hands before quickly walking off.

* * *

_It was the sheer presence of this creature that not only changed fate. But it changed the world by just continuing to exist_

* * *

Tony opened the door to the waiting room and was honestly quite shocked to see it empty. Shocked, disappointed then depressed, but before his mood could get worse the sound of high heels clicking against the ground caused him to spin around to come face to face with the most stunning and wonderful woman in the world. Her full pink lips parted slightly in shock. Her sparkling brown eyes widen enough to see all the other shades of brown. Her long blonde hair that should have been held up in a bun was now draped over her shoulders, bouncing into soft curls. Her beauty was out of this world, almost unnatural to even think that this woman exists, but she does exist. She has existed for many, many ages now.

"Where were you, Abel?" Tony almost demanded, still surprised that she came out of nowhere.

Abel opened her mouth but explaining that helping a butterfly get away from the scary sounds probably would sound weird. She shut her lips to think of another excuse. "Fireworks sound like bombs going off in my ears, you know." She quickly said. "I just stepped away for a bit."

Tony felt like he should argue with that but the sudden realization that this girl could hear 100 times better than everyone else was true. He can only imagine what it sounded like if he was in her shoes.

Abel frowned. "I'm sorry." She apologized earnestly. "Did I miss anything?"

Tony shook his head. "Nope. no." He reached up and held the side of her face. "You REALLY didn't miss much." He leaned in to kiss her but Abel ducked down and made him kiss her forehead instead. Tony frowned which caused Abel to giggle. She picked her head up and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Come on." She grabbed him by his hand. "It's time to go, right?" She led him out the door.

"You know, one of these days, Abel. One of these days." He couldn't help to laugh as he was dragged out.

Abel fought a smile that couldn't help come to her lips. She felt a sense of overjoy deep within her heart that she thought was buried a long time ago. Her heart, once again lept to life at every little thought of Tony. A sudden buzzing in the pocket of her dress made Abel stop dead in her tracks though. Her smile fell in that same instant and slowly, she stared down and saw her screen light up through the white fabric of her dress.

Tony noticed a sudden change in Abel's persona that was once the embodiment of joy, fall to the ground. "Abel? Sweetheart, what's wrong?" He asked and watched as Abel pulled out her phone. Her expression was strangely unreadable as her eyes scanned across the screen.

Abel's smile returned to her face and she pulled the phone back into her pocket. "Could you go to the car first, Tony? I have a call to make before I leave."

Tony eyed her suspiciously. "Is everything alright?"

Abel nodded. "Everything's fine. Don't worry." Her high-pitched yet soft voice returned and she played it off with her award-winning smile. "Go on. I'll be there in five minutes." She reached up and kissed his forehead and stepped back to grab her phone. Abel watched as Tony left while giving her a concerned look. Once he was gone she looked down at her phone again. Her expression was strange and almost astray as she slowly placed the phone to her ear.

On the other side of the call came a voice that boomed across the skies, as deep as the ocean and as calm as still water. The voice spoke up with this sternness that made her muscles clench up and respond instantly...but Abel could only smile warmly at that familiar and soothing voice that she has known since her birth. She felt at ease while listening to it and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Abel." The voice said her name with a deep rumbling tone that didn't sound harsh, but normal.

Abel's smile stretched all the way up to her ears and her eyes lit to life. She tilted her head to the side and spoke with a giggling voice. "My dear older sister, it's good to hear your voice again."


	2. Whose Property

WHOSE PROPERTY

Abel opened up the door to Tony's Malibu house and closed it behind her. She wasn't paying attention as her eyes were held to her phone screen that played Tony's meeting he had with the court conference about his suits that they're treating like a weapon. She wasn't able to go because of...personal reasons but Tony was able to back himself up pretty firmly with the findings on Justin Hammer.

She sighed deeply, watching Hammer try and struggle to unplug the TV screen that showed off his own attempt to replicate Tony's suit that ended poorly. "It's funny...how a creepy hunch I had with such a guy turned out to be true." Then again, her hunches were always true since she had more than enough time to hone them to perfection. Needless to say, it's hard to lie around her.

Abel descended to the lower area of the house where Tony's workspace was located. The same place that held all the memories of the past when working with the Mark 2 and the rather...difficult ones. But aside from that. She found this place to be the most comfortable. She halted in her tracks though and picked up on a small hint of iron in the air. Blood, without a doubt but something else was mixed in with the smell that puzzled her.

"Tony?" She called out and unlocked the door. She looked up just in time to see Tony turn off his computer screen.

His eyes lit up when he saw her, which made Abel's heart totally melt. "Hey. Missed you at the meeting. You should have been there." He got up from his chair to give her a kiss on the side of the head.

Abel smiled and patted the side of his face. "Sorry." She apologized and lifted her phone to show him the video she was watching. "You seemed to have handled it though."

"Hey. I would've been able to if you haven't found those videos of Hammer. Just how the hell were you able to come across those?"

Abel winked at him. "Being as old as I am...it's good to have a couple of connections. " Connections being SHEILD. Abel glanced her head back to the door and frowned. "Oh...you're in trouble."

Tony gave her a questionable look but he found her worries in a fuming Pepper who was marching down the stairs. "Oh...that's what you meant."

Pepper huffed and walked inside. "Is this a joke? What are you thinking?"

"What?" Tony actually hid behind Abel and placed the immortal between them.

"What are you thinking?" Pepper tried to get in front of him but Tony maneuvered Abel with him so she wouldn't get past. "Are you serious?"

"Hey, I'm thinking I'm busy. And you're angry about something." Tony began to walk around the room and kept a steady pace beside Abel for his own safety.

Pepper followed. "Did you just donate...our entire modern art collection to the..."

Abel answered. "Boy Scouts of America."

"Boy Scouts of America?" Pepper grabbed Abel by her shoulder. "Are you upset too? You were part of it."

Abel gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry, Pepper. I mean no offense but that really wasn't anything that I held close."

Pepper sighed. "You know, there are only about 8,011 things that I really want to say to him but... The Expo is a gigantic waste of time."

Tony spoke up to that. "There's nothing more important to me than the Expo...aside from Abel but that's a different story. It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you're..."

"The Expo is your ego gone crazy," Pepper said bluntly.

Abel placed her hands up and washed them clean and let Pepper and Tony argue back and forth. More like Pepper digging into him and Tony acting like it's not a big deal. She found it amazing that they can argue like an old married couple, but that's probably because they've known each other for a long time.

"I don't care about the liberal agenda anymore. It's boring." Tony rolled his eyes. "You do it."

"I do what?"

"Excellent idea. I just figured this out. You run the company."

"Yeah, I'm trying to run the company."

"Pepper, I need you to run the company. Well, stop trying to do it and do it."

"You will not give me the information."

"I'm not asking you to try..."

"In order to."

"Pepper, you're not listening to me! I'm trying to make you CEO." He almost snapped out. "Why won't you let me?"

Pepper froze. "Have you been drinking?"

Abel picked her head up and gave him a glance. "Pardon?"

"Ah. Chlorophyll." He patted Pepper on her shoulder. "I hereby irrevocably appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately. Yeah, done deal. Okay?" He walked over to Dummy who was carrying a tray of champagne with glasses. "I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not. It was actually a close match between you and Abel, but I knew she would never want the spotlight."

Abel smiled. "Thank you for being considerate."

"Whatever you wish sweetheart." He winked and gestured her over just as he popped the bottle. "I thought there'd be a legal issue, but actually I'm capable of appointing my successor. My successor being you." He faced Pepper who slowly sat down, stunned. He poured three glasses, one for Abel, himself, and the other for Pepper. "Congratulations?" He handed a glass to her. "Take it, just take it."

"I don't know what to think."

"Don't think, drink. There you go." Tony smiled and tapped their glasses together.

Abel's lips curled up and her whole body just felt warm. It would have been a perfect moment if the faint smell of blood wasn't still in the air. She glanced her head around to locate the smell and found it hovering around Tony's desk. Her inhuman, sharp eyes narrowed in on this small device sitting on his desk where something read on the screen that said 'Blood toxicity 24%'.

* * *

Abel never really thought of herself as a perfectionist, but staring at Happy as he was trying to teach Tony how to box was starting to flare up some old tendencies.

"The notary's here!" Pepper called at to Tony as she walked in. "Can you please sign the transfer paperwork?"

"I'm on happy time," Tony called back.

"I promise this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company."

Abel let out a laugh and glanced over. Her smile dropped as a woman walked into the room. She was very attractive with noticeable red hair. This woman's eyes slowly made eye contact with Abel that burned intensely into the woman's brown eyes. Abel's expression fell and she sharpened her gaze.

This woman walked over to Pepper and held out the documents. "I need you to initial each box." She said to her and handed her a pen.

Tony looked over his shoulder and saw Abel giving this woman a strange and concerned look. He suddenly felt Happy tap his boxing glove on the back of his head. "Lesson one. Never take your eye off..." Tony kicked him in the chest and he crashed up against the corner of the ring.

"That's it. I'm done." Tony walked over to the edge of the ring. "What's your name lady." He called out to the new woman.

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman." She answered.

"Front and center. Come into the church." He pointed to the ring.

Abel's eyes went wide. "Tony, wait a moment." she got up from her seat and raised her hand.

"It's no problem." Natalie's eyes locked with Abel before she walked up into the ring.

Tony swigged down some green liquid that was in a bottle and didn't break eye contact with her. "You give her a lesson," he asked Happy.

"No problem."

Tony got out of the ring and grabbed Abel by her shoulders and sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her. "Don't tell me you're jealous."

Abel slowly cranked her head over to him and stared at Tony like he was insane. "I am not," she said as firmly as she possibly could while holding eye contact with him the whole time.

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever you say, sweetheart. Who is she anyway?"

"She's from legal," Abel responded and watched the ring.

"And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that." Pepper eyed him.

"I'm not ogling her," Tony defended himself. "Why would I ogle her when I can stare at someone like Abel all day." He saw Abel stifle a smile beside him.

"You ever boxed before?" Happy asked with a sly smile while facing down Natalie.

"I have, yes."

"What, like, the Tae Bo? Booty Boot Camp? Crunch? Something like that."

Natalie lowered her head to the side to hide the fact that she was slightly annoyed by that statement. She lifted her head back up and glanced at Abel as she smiled at Tony.

"Rule number one, never take your eyes off the opponent." Happy goes to swing at her when Natalie snapped her head back and grabbed his arm. She twisted it and flipped him with her legs and got him on his back in seconds.

"Oh, my God!" Pepper shouted. "Happy."

Natalie released Happy and got up.

Happy got back to his feet. "Just slipped." He defended himself.

"Over her legs that were around your neck?" Abel questioned with a smile, trying not to laugh as she leaned against the ring.

"Ah..." Happy was at a loss for words to try to find a way out of this mess to save his pride that was crushed by a woman who was even smaller then Abel.

"And one more thing when you were training Tony." Abel pointed with her fingers. "Your legs were too far apart and your arms were to low. You lost balance way to easily and you can't defeat yourself when your arms are not up high enough.

Happy raised his brow and stared at her. "Are you sure about that?" He even goes as far as to question her.

Throughout her long life, Abel has had many, many opportunities to learn things like boxing or judo. The list was endless though and she's pretty sure a lot of those styles were mixed together over the years of endless use. Her own fighting style was unique because of that. It's how she was able to counter Stane when he attacked her and Tony. Still, Happy was in the dark about her true identity so...

Abel held her hands up. "Well...what do I know honestly..." She smiled and detached herself. She looked over her shoulder and saw Happy actually checking his leg stance and hand positions.

Natalie walked back over to Tony. "Just...need your impression."

"You have a quiet reserve. I don't know, you have an old soul." He began before she cut him off.

"I mean your fingerprint."

"Right." He stamped his finger and pressed it against the documents as Pepper walked over.

"So, how are we doing?" She asked.

"Great. Just wrapping up here. Hey. You're the boss."

Natalie closed the documents. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes," Pepper cut in. "That will be all, Ms. Rushman. Thank you very much."

Natalie was about to walk out of the room before she found Abel's large brown eyes burning a hole through her. Her deep gaze dropped though and she smiled. "It was nice meeting you...Ms. Rushman." Abel's voice dropped down and had a low, vibrating rumble to it.

Natalie nodded her head and left.


	3. Monaco In Flames

MONACO IN FLAMES

"God, can you smile any wider," Tony said to Abel as her beaming and lively eyes looked at the window. Tony couldn't help to grin too. Honestly, just staring at this woman made him smile like an idiot "I'm sure you've been to Monaco before, right?"

"I have. Many times in the past actually," Abel said. Her eyes were glued to the window as she took in the beautiful view that her old eyes haven't seen in such a long time. It all looked so different yet familiar at the same time and felt this warm feeling in her heart. Oh, she wanted to go exploring. She wanted to go to the parks and sit down and take up the sun. She wanted to go to the bars and drink their best wine. There were just so many things she wanted to do.

Tony watched Abel, her eyes glowing like a kid staring into a candy shop. He could stare at her all day. "How about this. After the formalities, I'll give you free rein to go exploring for a couple of hours."

Abel snapped her head back over so quickly and stared him dead in the eyes. "Really?" She sounded beyond excited but then frowned. "But are you sure about that? You won't need me for anything?"

"Abel, I only need the most gorgeous woman in the world by my side for a couple of minutes."

Abel's face burned red for a second. "Oh, please." She ran her fingers through his hair and tapped her forehead against his before Tony broke out into a smile.

It was a vacation with a formality because of the Grand Prix going on. Tony could see that Abel had no interest in this thing and he couldn't blame her. The last thing he wanted to do was hold her down and have her uncomfortable. Given the chance, he would have loved to go and explore with her too but that will have to be for another time.

Happy drove up to the Hotel De Paris and stopped the car in front of the building. People on the side, waiting for the race, cheered when Tony stepped out with Abel on his arm. Happy came out while carrying a red case and opened the car door for Pepper before they walked inside.

"You know, it's Europe. Whatever happens in the next 20 minutes, just go with it." Tony said to Pepper.

"Go with it? Go with what?" She asked.

Natalie walked up to them and smiled at them. "Mr. Stark?"

"Hey." Tony greeted the rather lovely looking woman.

"Hello. How was your flight?"

"It was excellent. Boy, it's nice to see you." Tony linked his arm with Abel as they followed behind Natalie.

"We have one photographer from the ACM if you don't mind. Okay." Natalie said but gave an eye to Abel.

Abel moved to the side, not being a fan of cameras, and gave the spot to Pepper. Time and time again she learned to never get her photo taken because it always comes up again in the future past. Example being when Tony found out her Identity. She waited as they posed for the picture before starting on their run again.

"Right this way," Natalie said.

Tony retook Abel's hand. "What's on the docket?"

"You have a 9:30 dinner."

"Perfect. I'll be there at 1:00."

"Absolutely."

Abel's eyes looked over and narrowed in on a bar. She walked over to it and raised her hand. "Manhattan, please." She ordered with a warm smile plastered to her face.

"Same here," Tony came up beside her and ordered one too. "I never took you for a drinker."

"Hm..." Abel held the drink with her long elegant fingers. "Well...I'm not a big drinker but I do enjoy a fine wine with great company-" Her words fell short faster than her smile. "Behind you," she spoke slowly and turned her face away.

Justin Hammer's head peeked out from behind the crowd at the bar. "Anthony. Is that you?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "My least favorite meets my most person on Earth." He quickly paid for Abel's drink. "Sweetheart, how about you go sightseeing now."

Abel frowned and downed her drink in seconds (Impressive). "Are you sure?" She asked, just having to make sure that he will be fine on his own. "Because I can handle Hammer if you want me too."

Tony shook his head. "That's the thing. It's just Hammer. I'm fine. Just go before he sees you." He gave her a slight push and watched as Abel made a swift escape out the back door.

* * *

Abel reluctantly had to leave Tony behind at the bar and did feel a bit bad about it but she did have this one place she really wanted to revisit as soon as possible. Her heels clicked against the cobblestone floor while she adventured down the bear alleyways where it got more and more scarce of people. Of course, normal people wouldn't be down this way when they have no business with it because it was a rich area of town. A while back—well, actually it was a very long time ago, Abel bought a house in the region and decided to head there first to dig up some old memories and which bring out an old picture that she left behind.

It was a bit off the beaten path with a small stone walkway leading up to a white fence cottage with a protruding doorway. The stone was old that was once white but now a bit brown with age, two windows on the second floor, and one on the first floor. She opened the front door with its key and took in the musty smell and honeysuckle scent the came from within. The inside was still very nice with white walls, hardwood floors, and an old kitchen table with brown chairs.

"Would have been nicer if someone lived in it," Abel mumbled to herself.

She now knew that she was the first one to walk inside after who knows how many years. A thin layer of dust covered the table and the windows were coated in cobwebs. It was sad to see this lovely house in such a state but it can't be helped. Abel had once thing on her mind though that she wanted to find. An old picture that she left here. It wasn't in any of the desks in any of the rooms which were strange since that was the last time she saw it, but it didn't take long to actually find it. It was inside one of the bedside drawers. She began to feel her heart speed up in her chest as her fingers lined the frame of dust that covered the back of the picture. In a flash, she flipped it over as the biggest smile expressed with happiness came to her lips as sorrow lined her eyes.

* * *

Tony was able to separate himself from Hammer after his long bullcrap ramblings and went inside the bathroom. He undid his tie and buttoned-down his shirt a bit to see black veins on his skin that were coming from the arc reactor. He stared grimly at it before he pricked his finger on a small device and the screen lit up and read 'Blood toxicity 53%'. He felt his stomach drop to the ground and he became short of breath for a moment until this bitter sensation washed over him. "Sorry, Abel..." He apologized for keeping a secret from her. He wanted to tell her about this but every time he saw that smile he loved so much, he couldn't bring himself to see it fall. He looked up in the mirror and stared at his reflection. "Got any other bad ideas?"

* * *

Tony strolled out onto the track now dressed in a blue racing suit. He jumped over the barrier and up to a car. The camera's turned to him and the flashes blinded his eyes when he walked up towards the car. "Well, what's the use of having...and owning a race car...if you don't drive it?"

* * *

Abel was enjoying herself inside an old-style bar in town and was taking up the fine wine with the smell of old cigarette smoke bathed into the wood. It was nothing special but it brought back a lot of nostalgia for her which she lived for. The low tones of the bar then took a turn when she looked around and saw all the customers looking at the TV with wide eyes and began to chat with each other. She looked up at the screen and she felt her body run cold as her muscles stiffen.

On-screen, Tony got set up in the car and pulled a helmet over his face.

Abel sucked in a deep breath. "What are you..." She sat frozen with her eyes glued to the screen, not sure of what to do for a moment as she watched as this man she adored, race through the Grand Prix, but what caught her off guard was on screen, this other man walked out in the middle of the race wearing an orange jumpsuit. He reached for the front of his suit and pulled it open, revealing a ball of light attached to the front of his chest. An arc reactor.

She felt her soul shrivel up and die.

This man, this dangerous man continued to walk through the middle of the street and pulled out two whips into his hands the crackled with electricity. They scorched the ground as he dragged them with him. At the moment, Tony came racing around the track and came face to face with this man and watched as he pulled back one of the whips and threw it down over the front of the racing car, chopping a piece off and sending it tumbling down the track.

Abel never got up so fast. She ran for the door and didn't even pay to the bartender who was shouting at her about the bill she had yet to pay. He went as far as to follow her out, but when Abel was about of sight, he heard a crunching sound and ran out of the bar. Abel was gone, like a ghost in the wind but the concrete out front was destroyed.

* * *

Happy drove like a mad man and busted through the barrier onto the race track with Pepper bouncing around in the back.

"Where's Abel?" Happy called back at her. "I tried to get a hold of her but she won't answer her phone. Do you think she knows what's going on?"

Pepper knew without a doubt that Abel was aware of what was happening and was probably on her way to Tony right now. "Don't worry about that right now. Drive!"

* * *

Whiplash walked over to the overturned dragster and flung the electric whip over the front of it but saw no one at the wheel. Tony came up behind him and knocked him over the head with a sheet of metal. Whiplash turned around and knocked it out of Tony's hand with his deadly whip and tried to hit him with it. Tony scrambled to his feet and did best to avoid the whip before he saw Happy driving around the corner and began to speed up right towards them. Tony leaped and grabbed the fence and climbed up just when Happy rammed Whiplash with the car and trapped him.

Tony climbed down from the fence and walked over to the car where he could hear Pepper screeching and Happy asking him if he was okay. "Were you heading for him or me?" Tony shouted at Happy.

"I was trying to scare him."

"'Cause I can't tell!"

Pepper then screamed at him from the top of her lungs. "Are you out of your mind!?"

"If I have Abel with me then I'd have better security!"

"Get in the car right now!"

"I was attacked. We need better security!"

"Get in the car. We'll find Abel in a moment!" Happy said.

Tony rolled his eyes and moved around the other side of the car. "You're CEO. Better security measures. God, it's embarrassing." He complained. "First vacation with Abel and it went down the drain." He opened the car door when it was suddenly slashed off by the whip.

"Oh my God!" Pepper screamed as the spark-filled the air right beside her.

Happy began to reverse a bit and ram into Whiplash once again while Pepper screeched at Tony to take the case she had with her. The whip cut through the air and slammed into the car repeatedly and started to take chunks off it.

"Give me the case! Come on!" Tony shouted.

"Tony!?" Abel peeked her head up above the crowd of people and finally broke through, shoving everyone aside as they tried to getaway. She then saw Whiplash raised his arm to slash the car once again but she jumped over the barrier right on time and slammed her heel into the side of the car (Denting the hell out of it) and sliding it out of harm's way. Abel turned around to face Tony and her face was drained of all color when she saw the bruises and blood on his face. "Are you okay!?" Abel called out with a desperate voice and shook Tony's shoulders and looked over him, totally discarding Whiplash behind her.

"Ah, ah, yeah, but can you...you know." Tony's eyes widen when he saw Whiplash pull his weapon back, ready to strike. "Get this guy!"

The electric whip crackled in the air and flung down upon Abel when her hand shot up and caught it, coiling it around her fist. It burned her skin black and the whip embedded itself all the way through her bones but Abel remained unfazed to the pain. She slowly turned her head around her shoulder and dropped the whip to reveal her severely burnt hand that began to steam and heals back to perfection.


	4. Monster With A Pretty Face

MONSTER WITH A PRETTY FACE

Abel had to be careful. The area was still full of people looking down on the fight so she couldn't just beat this guy into the dirt with the strength of an elephant with all these eyes still watching. She had to make sure her secret stayed hidden if possible. The only thing she can do against this guy is to get close enough to remove the arc reactor he had attached to his chest.

"Sweetheart." Tony grabbed Abel's shoulder and looked around at all the watchful eyes that were staring at them. "Your hand. Your hand."

"I know." Abel hid her hand behind her back to hide the steam and noticed Whiplash's curious and confused gaze on her.

He pulled back one of his whips and flung it down at Abel and Tony. She quickly pushed him away and backed up to the side just as the whip slammed down between them and scorched the ground. He pulled his other whip up and tried to sideswipe her but Abel jumped up and avoided it. She got the chance to run at him but noticed that the two whips were suddenly enclosing in on her from the side. Abel leaped forwards, twisting in the air as the electric whips flew right across her airborne body. She landed on her feet firmly and jumped on Whiplash. Her legs twisted around his neck and the momentum brought him to the ground. Taking the chance she finally yanked the arc reactor out and stopping the power from charging the whips.

Abel broke away from Whiplash and backed away just when the CRS started to crowd in on him and take him away from the fight.

Whiplash spat out blood and laughed. "You lose... You lose, Stark!"' He droned through belting out fits of laughter while being dragged away.

Abel looked down at the arc reactor in her hand and narrowed her eyes. She looked to Tony and shook her head, dropping it to the ground and smashing it under her heel.

* * *

Tony and Abel walked through the high-security prison where they kept the criminal who set Monaco aflame. Abel talked to the police officer in French and tried to get clearance for Tony to talk to the man responsible for all this. Abel was there for extra security since she didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone with a man who tried to kill him.

"We ran his prints. We got nothing back, not even a name." The officer said to Abel in French.

"Nothing? Really?" Abel asked.

"Yes, ma'am. We're not even sure he speaks English. He hasn't said a word since he got here."

"That's fine. Just give us five minutes." Abel said and stopped in front of the door they held the man behind. He was there since she could hear his steady heartbeat on the other side of the room. He was calm, strangely, even after everything he has done. That is what caused her to be unnerved. Why did this man hold such a grudge against Tony?

"How much time do we got?" Tony asked her.

"Only five minutes," Abel said. She placed her hand on the handle and took one final breath. She opened it up and her and Tony stepped in, shutting and locking the door behind them. She felt the blood in her veins turn to ice when she saw this man's tattooed covered back. He sat on a bench and was stripped down to nothing but his underwear. He didn't turn around or say anything to acknowledge their presence.

Tony took a step forward when Abel reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him. He saw her face morphed in concern. "It's fine, sweetheart. It's why you're here." Tony patted her arm and held it tightly before approaching this mysterious man who is out for his blood. "Pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low. You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionized plasma channels. It's effective. Not very efficient. But it's a passable knock-off but it's nothing when going up against my girl." Tony began but this man said nothing and didn't even flinch. He sat down on the opposite side of the bench and fiddled with Abel's fingers while he continued to drone information out of this man. "I don't get it. A little fine-tuning you could have made a solid paycheck. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or go onto the black market. You look like you got friends in low places."

He finally turned his head and smirked at them. Abel tensed up. "You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed."

Tony wasn't fazed by this man's words. "Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?"

"My father. Anton Vanko."

"Well, I never heard of him.

He scoffed. "My father is the reason you're alive."

"The reason I'm alive is that I have my partner right here beside me." Tony gestured to Abel. "You lost your chance the moment she stepped up on stage."

Whiplash slowly arched a brow and looked back at Abel. His eyes trailed to her soft and innocent features that didn't match up with what he saw back in Monaco. She was quick on her feet and took every opportunity to attack. She was able to counter his moves like it was the most natural thing to do. It was only something that could have been possible with a lifetime of fighting experience. Through endless combat and human observation, she was able to defeat him without a problem.

"A monster with a pretty face." He scoffed and lifted his hand and gestured Abel over in which she complied. She walked over to Whiplash calmly and kneeled down in front of him. She stared at him directly in the eyes with this unfazed and unblinking expression while he began to speak in a low whisper that only Abel and Tony could hear. "You're not human...right?"

Tony felt himself slip away from reality for a moment when those impossible words reached his ears. He was unable to think and just watched Abel's unfazed face stare right through his man without stop and even less of a twitch. She was unbreakable because those words have been spoken to her ever since she was cursed.

Abel's old and powerful eyes burned into this man before her soft voice broke through the tension, speaking in Russian so Tony wouldn't hear what she was about to say. " _I never thought myself above anyone else, despite what I am. But I know my place better than anyone in this whole world._ " She leaned in close and spoke in a low voice, it made all the warm blood flush out of his body and was replaced with ice water. " _I stopped caring about what people thought of me a very long time ago, but if you go after the man I love one more time...I will kill you._ " Her voice was as ironclad as the promise she vowed to him.

Tony couldn't understand what Abel was talking about since he didn't understand Russian, but just listening to her voice that broke a new low made his heart feel heavy with this terrifying reminder of who this woman was. It was easy to forget since she was always so kind and bubbly, but now...she was acting her age. The woman was older than time itself that has seen the world at its worse. She has walked through hell itself time and time again till the soles of her feet were unable to feel the pain anymore. She carried on, all with a stern and unbreakable presence that was eternal.

She was Abel Bamlett, yes. But..she was the 'Abel' before anything.

* * *

They were finally on their way back to Malibu by jet, but Abel's worries were far from over. She felt a headache start to form right in the center of her forehead while looking at the TV of Stern running his mouth. Tony peeked out from the back of the jet and watched Abel as her eyes scanned over the TV.

"It's just unbelievable. It proves that the genie is out of the bottle and this man has no idea what he's doing. He thinks of the Iron Man weapon as a toy. I was at a hearing where Mr. Stark, in fact, was adamant that these suits can't exist anywhere else, don't exist anywhere else, never will exist anywhere else, at least for five to ten years, and here we are in Monaco realizing, 'These suits exist now.'" Stern mouthed off before the whole thing was muted by Tony.

"He should be giving me a medal. No, he should give both of us a medal." Tony sat down across from her with a tray in his hand.

"I would never accept anything from that man and I don't need a medal to know I did a good job. I know what I did was good and that's enough for me." Abel felt her headache worsen. She whimpered a bit and rubbed her head.

Tony felt his heartbreaking. He sat what looked to be a plate and cover down in front of her. It was his attempt to cheer her up and also smooth over the fact that she had to save him again.

Abel eyed it. "What is that?"

"This is your..." He removed the cover to reveal...something. "...in-flight meal."

Abel stared at it for the longest time, impressed because she had never seen something so unappetizing before. She would never say that to him but she felt happy that he went out of his way to make it. "Is that where you been for the last 3 hours?" Her lips curled up into a smirk.

"Ah..." Tony couldn't even admit it.

Abel's smile fell. "Tony...what are you not telling me?"

Tony felt like his heart was being squeezed. "I don't wanna go home. At all. Let's cancel my birthday party and... We're in Europe. Let's go to Venice, Cipriani. You've been there, right?"

"I have. Yes." Abel stared at him dead in the eyes before speaking up rather firmly. "Tony, we can't just ignore a mess like this one."

"Just a ride. Well, you don't want a reminder that I keep aging while you're staying the same, right?" Tony kept it up but it only made him feel worse when Abel's face began to fall more and more.

"Tony..." Abel took a deep breath and moved up in her seat a bit to get a better look into his eyes. "I love you...more than you're capable of imagining. Waking up next to you and having your face be the first thing I see...it's utterly marvelous, but this one thing still lingers in the back of my head every day. Every single day...I think 'You've aged a bit.'" Abel's voice began to crack as tears started to well up in her eyes. She took a deep breath and sat back in her seat and rubbed her eyes.

Tony's eyes slowly widen when he saw the tears began to fall. He felt his body tense up and felt this guilt that swallowed him. "I...I." What could he say to ease her endless worry about the inevitable? What could he say? Nothing. There was nothing he could say, and Abel had been aware of this fact her whole life.

Abel shook her head and took in a trembling breath. "I'm reminded every day that my time with you is limited. So...you scared me to death with what you did back there with going into that race. I'm trying to keep you by my side for as long as I can...and just trying to hold on to this feeling..." She couldn't even bear to speak normally anymore before her throat started to close up like barbwire around her neck. She tried to wipe the tears out of her eyes, all the while they became more red and puffy.

When this woman cries, the sun refused to shine and the oceans start to drain of water. It felt like the end times when Tony had to see her cry and it felt like someone stabbed him in the heart because he knew he was to blame for this. He hated seeing her like it because he felt like his own soul was going to revolt against him.

"Don't cry. Come on." Tony kneeled in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face. Her skin was flushed and her eyes were glassy. "You still look stunning even when you cry, but that doesn't mean I like to see it." He got a laugh out of her. "That's my smile. Come here, sweetheart." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down into a tight embrace to try and squeeze all the sadness out of her small body. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He kissed the side of her head and rubbed her back all the while his own being was flooding with shame and guilt.


	5. Please, Don't Tell Abel

PLEASE, DON'T TELL ABEL

Abel clenched the steering wheel tightly in her hand till her knuckles turned white. She rolled her eyes and mouthed off as Coulson scolded her like a child for the stunt she pulled against Whiplash back in Monaco.

"I have told you enough times already not to make yourself public," Coulson said. "You did well about keeping your destructive abilities under wrap, but the videos still had to be edited a bit."

"I did well?" Abel narrowed her eyes and glared at the Bluetooth installed in her car (Black Ferrari by the way). "Did you really just say 'You did well?' To me of all people? Coulson, it makes me feel like you're talking to a child. Look, I don't want my existence to get out because I love the silence, but I was back up in a corner on that one."

"That is no excuse."

Abel rolled her eyes. "I'm done talking to you. Utterly done." She hung up on him and released a big sigh, leaning her arm against the window and rubbed her temple to soothe her throbbing head. "What a mess..."

* * *

Tony was beyond thankful that Abel went out for a couple of hours so she wouldn't have to see him like this. He had heavy dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pale and glistening with sweat. The black veins were getting worse too and traveled up to his neck now. He still had work to do though and sat in one of his cars in his workshop, listening to a file on his mysterious Whiplash and Anton Vanko that Jarvis was reading.

"Query complete sir. Anton Vanko was a Soviet physicist who defected to the United States in 1963. However, he was accused of espionage and was deported in 1967. His son, Ivan, who is also a physicist, was convicted of selling Soviet-era weapons-grade plutonium to Pakistan and served 15 years in Kopeisk prison. No further records exist." Jarvis explained.

Rhodey then hurried downstairs and opened the door, ready for Tony to get on top of things. "Tony, you gotta get upstairs and get on top of this situation right now. Listen. I've been on the phone with the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of rolling tanks up to the PCH, knocking down your front door and taking these. They're gonna take your suits, Tony, okay? They're sick of the games. You said nobody else would possess this technology for 20 years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It's not theoretical anymore. Are you listening to me?" He walked up to him then froze when he saw the state he was in. "Are you okay? "

Tony was quiet and spoke in an even quieter voice. "Let's go." He opened the car door to get out but his strength just evaporated and he collapsed to the ground.

"Hey, man." Rhodey ran around and helped him up. "Hey, hey. You all right?" He wrapped an arm around him for support.

"Yeah, I should get to my desk." He was dragged over to his desk. "See that cigar box?"

"Yeah."

"It's palladium." Tony sat down and reached under his shirt and pulled out the arc reactor from his chest. It popped opened and smoke began to emit from it.

"Is that supposed to be smoking?" Rhodey took out the small disk that was scorched black.

"If you must know, it's neutron damned, it's from the reactor wall."

"You had this in your body?" The disk was replaced and was handed back to Tony. "And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?"

"Road rash." Tony placed the reactor back into his chest and slapped it a bit until he could breathe again. He reached out for his drink to counteract the symptoms when he noticed Rhodey beginning to dial something on his phone. "What are you doing?"

"I'm calling Abel."

Tony's eyes went wide and he felt his heart stop in his chest when he remembered Abel's crying face the other day. "No. Nah-ah." He snatched the phone out of Rhodey's hand before he could click 'call'. "We're not telling Abel."

"Why? You wanna do this while lone gunslinger act and it's unnecessary. You don't have to do this alone."

"Please," Tony finally cracked. "Don't...I can't imagine what she would look like if she found out...so..." His face fell. "Please, don't tell Abel. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing."

Not with what happened the other day. He felt his heart shatter when Abel started to cry in front of him. He didn't even want to begin telling her about this. To face her...he was scared too.

* * *

Tony walked into his bedroom and saw Abel silently reading a paperback book in her hand. Her eyes slowly scanned over the words before flipping to the next page. Her once always smiling face set in stone where not even a muscle was moving, eyes clearly focused on the book laid out before her.

"What you reading?" Tony asked and walked over to his side and started to peel back the covers and get rid of some of the decorative pillows.

"A diary." She spoke softly and flipped to another page.

Tony furrowed his brow. "Your diary?"

Abel looked up, a smile crept to her full and pink lips. "Oh, Tony...I have made so many diaries in the past about my eternal journey. Some in which I burned, some were lost, others were stolen and some even found their way to paperback." Her smile, though beautiful, appeared sad. "But this is not one of those times. 'The Diary of Miss Idilia' is the name of the book."

Tony frowned and walked over to her side to look at what she was speaking of so sadly. "Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't have found it unless you were purposely looking for it." She said and moved the book at an angle so he could see. "It's a real-life diary of a young girl who went on a trip with her family, but the story ends catastrophically when dear Idilia went out one foggy morning and never returned. Trapped upon an abandoned castle with no way down, she wrote in her diary about her final moments before succumbing to starvation."

Tony frowned and felt his stomach twist to that unexpected response. "You enjoy books like that?"

"I'm reading this so I won't forget her since I knew her personally. I read this every once in a while out of respect." Her voice was as soft as cotton but as sharp and firm as stone. "She will be immortalized in my eyes at least."

Tony sat down at the end of the bed. It was like every day he found out something new and interesting thing about this amazing woman. "How did you know her?" Down to her gentle voice and poetic words, he could listen to her talk all day and remember everything, taking it all in because now, he felt desperate to know with the short amount of time he feared he had left with her

"Because I met her during such a trip and she mentioned me right..." Abel started to flip back through the pages to find that one part. "Right...ah, found it." She stopped and hopped over to Tony to show him it. "Right here she wrote ' _It was a short encounter but I wish I had more time to talk to this person. Without a doubt, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever met but her eyes never looked so old before. The way she talked sounded like she was from a different era and just the air around her smelled fresh but heavy at the same time. The world is big, bigger then I can even fathom if such a person lives in it._ '"

Tony laughed a bit and took the book from her hands to look at it. "She only met you for what? 20 minutes? And she picked up right away that you weren't normal. An here I am, taking about three months to figure it out." He felt defeated by a 17 year old.

"Don't beat yourself up over something like that. It's nothing to be ashamed for. I've noticed through this long, long life that certain people can be very sharp and opened minded about abnormal things. Idilia being one of such people." Abel could recall those old memories all the way back in 1851. That young and bright woman who had the whole world to look forward to. To die from such a fate, and Abel figuring it out the way she did, by walking by the book in a store was absolutely heart-crushing. "Her eyes...were full of so much life..."

Tony closed the book and reached over to set it on the table. "What do you see when you look at my eyes?" Being generally curious since Abel was able to read people like an open book.

Abel actually scoffed at that. "Oh, I see more than you capable of imagining, Tony. Arrogance, narcissism, an oversized ego-"

"That was not what I wanted to hear." Tony cut her off. "God, if I knew you were going to dig my own grave for me then I wouldn't have asked you."

Abel ran her fingers through his hair and he slowly leaned down into her shoulder. "You're also very snarky. You use sarcastic remarks to keep everyone from a distance. It's a protective tactic really. You act very self-destructive too because you think ahead and predict that the people around you may come to hate you...so you fall in a way to the destructive state. But despite what you may think of yourself...know that I will always love every bad and good trait because that is who you are and who I fell for."

Her voice was an addicting drug to his ears. He could fall asleep if she told him to rest. He would cry if she started to cry. He would get angry if she got angry. Once again he found himself willingly falling under her spell and could drown in this temporary heaven which was being in her presence. To have her in his arms and know, from the bottom of his heart, that she belonged to him and only him. All kinds of common sense melted away from his mind when this hunger sank deep into his heart. Without thinking, his body moved instinctively and their lips melded together. She gasped from the sudden shock of it all but it only deepened the more she tried to comprehend what was happening. Abel was incapable to think anymore and this feeling washed over her that she had never felt or experienced before in her life.

Heat. It was hot, absolutely boiling. Lust and wild passion that drove her body to the ground. Abel had never experienced such lustful feelings before. Not once or even the beginning of man. Humanity did not stem from her and her sisters, they, of course, were treated like rejects, so not once had she fallen in love with a man to give herself over. Not until now. Now, she couldn't even think past the thick clouds in her head.

Tony wanted this. He wanted this so badly and feeling how Abel's body was reacting to his hands only deepened his hunger. This pain in his chest though struck him like lightning and he pulled away from this beautiful woman. Abel stared up at him with her mouth open from the sudden pull, eyes glassy and skin slightly flushed.

Tony got up and moved away from her, even going as far as to hold his hand up in front of him. "Sorry, I...Sorry." He swallowed hard and choked a bit.

Abel sat up quickly and looked at him with worried eyes. "Tony? Is something wrong?" Her lips quivered. "You're scaring me a bit."

God, please no.

"No...it's just...I can't." He couldn't bear to look her in the eyes, fearing that he just might crumble away. "I don't...I don't deserve you...I don't deserve...any of you."

It was a knife in the disguise of words. The only kind of wounds that refused to heal from Abel's body because not only had it sank into her skin but ripped through her heart. She forgot to breathe and just sat there void of all air. For once, she wished for death to be an escape from the feeling in her heart. Abel sat up very slowly and without words, gathered her clothes, and pulled her jacket on. She hurried past him and looked over her shoulder as Tony stared back. "Sorry...I think I need a bit of time alone." She said nothing more and left the room.

The silence enclosed on him at last and Tony lifelessly walked over to the mirror and began to unbutton his shirt to look at what he had become. The veins finally reaching his neck. The thing he had been trying to hide from her the whole time. The coldness was all he felt now when he sat on the bed and noticed her book was still on the nightstand.


	6. Abel's First Love

**ABEL'S FIRST LOVE**

Her heart felt like small and cold shards of glass but the warm night air held in the red dusk soothed her bleeding heart enough to pull into a bar parking lot. Abel sat still in silence and listen to the rowdy music and cheering coming from the inside.

It burned. Her heart literally was burning like lava in her chest and Abel feared that it might burst. She felt pain but didn't know if she should be upset with the way Tony rejected her. She sighed deeply and closed her eyes. "My love...you surely are a fool." She cracked under her frail voice and decided that going into the bar would be a nice and small getaway to heal her heart and clear her mind.

It wasn't cold outside despite it being 8:30 AM, it was because she lived in Malibu that it was always pretty hot. Luckily nothing like the heat or coldness affected her well-being. The only good thing about her abilities.

Abel popped opened the car door and got out, the red glow of dusk showering her back in the heat and lighting up her brown eyes that glowed like embers. She stood still and leaned against her car to just admire the beauty of the sun as it made its departure. Time and time again, she had seen this sight over thousands of times but the sheer warmth and calmness that this natural sight had, possessed her to always, without fail, stare at it.

Once she opened the door to the bar she was greeted with the loudest but most delightful bunch of people who smiled ear to ear while talking/shouting amongst each other. From the dimly lit room, the smell of cigarette smoke, and the constant noise...she felt at peace with herself. This was it. This is what she liked to see, human smiling and chatting about the old times, the days to come, and the stupidest decision that they made this week. It felt so natural to be around these kinds of people and it brought her a sense of nostalgia too.

"Get off me! I said no four times already! Can't you take a hint?"

Nostalgia went and replaced with dread. A man who looked to be in his early 30's tugged on a girl's shoulder as she shouted at him to let go. His face was flushed red and it looked like he was sweating alcohol too. He seemed rather aggravated when she shoved his hand off. "What's your problem. I just said I wanna drink with you. It's ain't like I'm gonna do something bad to you." His drunk brain refused to see reason and he really didn't believe that he as being irritating. He reached his hand down to grab her shoulder once again when Abel's hand shot down and grabbed his wrist, not tightly but firmly. He snapped his head up and was taken back by her eyes that burned through the alcohol in his brain.

She looked slightly disappointed. "That's not polite. She already gave you her answer and doesn't want to drink with you," she said as her hand was yanked off. Abel frowned and stood her ground against this man. "It would be the right thing to respect people's wishes." She spoke without a growl or hint of hostility in her voice. It was firm and unshaken.

His man sucked in a deep breath and felt his whole body slowly start to sober up by just her stare alone. He felt small under her gaze but didn't feel any kind of resentment either. It knocked his whole being off balance and he forgot how to speak, much less react while staring down at this petite woman.

Abel could smell his breath that arranged of all the alcohol they had in the bar. "I also think you've had enough to drink too." She took the frozen man by his shoulders and started to lead him out of the bar. "You'll have to walk home today and come back to get your car tomorrow. Get home quickly and drink lots of water so the hangover won't be so bad the next day."

Feeling compelled and still lost to what 'words' were. He slumped out into the darkness to make the track home without a fuss.

The girl who only looked to be in her early 20's looked dumbfounded as she stared at Abel who was even waving the man off with a smile. "I swear...I swear I thought a bar fight was gonna break out, and you somehow ended it by telling Dudebro back there to go home and drink water...like a freaking mother."

Abel turned around. She smiled and tilted her head to the side. "I've been in many bar fights in the past..and at this stage of my life, they just seem meaningless now and tiring." She walked back over to her. "And besides...we don't know what compels people to act like that. Perhaps...he was having a bad day at work and wanted a small and nice escape."

The woman laughed a bit. "I hear you." She sat her drink down and held her hand out to Abel. "Hey...I didn't ask for help or anything like that but...thanks. It's nice to know that people are still willing to jump in even when you don't ask for it."

Abel smiled kindly at this woman and shook her hand. This woman was blonde too but the tips of her hair faded out to brown. She had pale skin with freckles across her nose with steely gray eyes that looked like they were made of gunmetal. But her appearance didn't stick out as much as Abel's did who looked like she was from another high-class era.

"I got to say this but...you really do stick out like a sore thumb. Looks to me that you're in the wrong bar on the wrong side of town." She said with a snarky smirk and gestured for Abel to sit down next to her.

Abel sat down and made a signal to the bartender for a drink. "Small and rough places like these are charming to me. They bring me back."

The woman eyed her. "Bring you back? You don't look any older than me."

"I'm older than I look." She winked.

She chuckled a bit at that. "You don't say... I'm Macy, by the way." She grabbed her new glass when her's and Abel's were brought over.

"Abel."

"That's an old name if I ever heard one. " Macy's steely eyes glanced down to Abel's outfit that looked like a silk shirt and pants. "Sorry to asked this but...why you wearing PJs?"

Abel looked down at her clothes and her face began to burn a bit since she didn't realize that she was still wearing them. "Oh dear...ah, I had to leave my house abruptly and just didn't bother changing." Her heart throbbed a bit to say those words.

Macy furrowed her brows and pondered on that for a minute. "Was it a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Bad."

"Family, friends, or boyfriend." She took one more look at Abel's face. "You look like someone who would have a boyfriend."

Abel was taken back a bit by this girl's sharp deduction. "You're quite the sharp one, Macy." A crinkling smile sprung to her lips. She looked down at her drink which was a hard liquor with a single ice cube in it. "You're right. I think I had a...I think it was a fight." She took down the bitter drink.

Macy sighed. "Men... It looked like a pretty bad one if you came to this bar while still wearing your PJs. What did he do? Did he cheat or something, because if he did then he would be an A-grade idiot for letting a pretty thing like you run off into the night."

Abel was a little frantic to clear Tony of cheating. She shook her head and held her hand up. "No, no. Nothing like that. He just...he." She stopped herself. "We were...having a lovely night when he suddenly said to me, out of the blue, 'I don't deserve you'."

Macy's drink was inches from her mouth when she had to put it down out of sheer confusion. "The hell does that mean?"

Abel shrugged her shoulders. "He really did surprise me when he said that, the adorable fool. It hurt my feelings and I was so confused about it or what to do that I just...left." She lifted her hand and dropped it against the counter. "I kinda regret it now, but I really didn't know what to do in a time like that...it never happened to me before." She sighed and rubbed her tired eyes.

"How long have you been together?"

"Since 2008."

Macy looked away and mouthed the word 'wow'. "Okay, so...lets look at the facts here. You guys have been together more than a year now." She started to count on her fingers. "With no complications, right?"

Abel grimaced a bit. "None that we couldn't overcome." Referring to her secret.

"Okay. None that you couldn't overcome and right now, out of the blue...he dropped that bomb on you. Have you been with him longer than any of your other relationships?" Macy saw a change in Abel's eyes when she said that. They shifted between many emotions in under a second. "Abel...hey?" She waved her hand out in Abel's face.

She groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. "I don't think...I can call my last relationship, an actual 'relationship'. It ended way to...horible wrong." Abel noticeable started to shake. Her voice was rough and her hands trembled when she raked it through her hair.

Macy saw the limit that she crossed and raised her hands up in defense. "Wow, man...I didn't mean any harm by the question."

Abel tried her best to smile to ease the pain. "Oh don't worry. I know it was an innocent question. It's just...that part of my life is something...I really wish I could forget."

"Oh my god, this one actually cheated on you," Macy said.

Abel snickered. "I wish that were the case. Then it would have been easier to handle all these years later." Her smile turned bitter with those memories that haunt even her dreams.

It all happened back in 1736, the era of Piracy in the Caribbeans. She, Abel lived on the shore where the sun would set and fall above the sea and shine its rays over the waters, making it look like the whole ocean was made of priceless diamonds. But for her family, that era will always know as...'The Darkness', 'The Flood' or 'The Break of Innocence'.

"The first time I fell in love, I was naive and thought the world of this 'Man'. He was charming, handsome, tall, and strong. I fell for him, hard."

Macy turned quiet and only listened with curious eyes. "What did he do?" She can only think that he might have cheated but Abel said it wasn't that so she feared what would come out of her mouth.

Abel was quiet to find the words to say it, to describe what happened. "He...wasn't who he said he was...he was a liar, manipulative, and all-around...the furthest a human can ever fall into darkness..." Abel turned and looked Macy right in her steely eyes. Taking in a deep breath, she finally spoke the truth that hasn't left her mouth in over 270 years. "His occupation was...human trafficking."

The color drained from Macy's face and her mouth suddenly felt dry. She wanted to speak and ask questions but words were lost for her.

Abel saw the innocence in Macy's eyes waver a bit and fear rise up. She smiled sadly and patted her head. "Obviously I am fine since I'm here today, but let me tell you...those 6 months I was with him, I was utterly oblivious to what he was doing to me. I didn't realize that he was just trying to gain my trust to make it easier to ship me out and...it almost worked. The day I was taken away, it was like my whole body shut down and didn't want to work or wake up anymore. I wouldn't say I felt afraid...just crushed, like all the worlds decided to collapse in on me and I couldn't breathe...I think I actually stopped breathing through most of the situation too."

Macy finally snapped out of her trance. "Wait, wait, wait. I need a moment here." She shook her head. "They actually took you away? You were in the middle of being transferred?"

Abel nodded her head. "Indeed, I was. He fooled me completely and had every intention of taking me through the darkest route where no one could follow or find me...In their heads...he thought he succeeded and were planning on selling me at a high value." Abel furrowed her brows. "I think that price was...2 million."

Macy began to cough on the very air she breathed. "2...? Are you serious?" She exclaimed.

"Yes. I overheard them saying that I was the prettiest one they ever had the honor of fooling." She laughed but her eyes darkened with the thought of their diseased voices mocking in her ears. "I was in the dark, locked away where my mind shut down and unable to think past my own naivety. I just...sat there, cursing my whole entire existence and not excepting the reality around me." A faint smile fell to her lips. "But they made an error in their plans and was hunted down by the worse person imaginable to anger..."

"Who was it?" This time It was an older man's voice who spoke. Abel and Macy turned around and saw that the entire bar had stopped what they were doing and was listening to her story in silence. "Who found that bastard?" This older man who looked to be in the mid-'50s said.

Abel turned her body around to face everyone and smiled ear to ear. "My eldest sister." She felt her skin began to shiver with the memories. "My sister, she hunted that man and his whole team down by herself...and found me at long last."

It was silent like the grave in the bar now and no one lifted their drinks or ordered a new one. Abel had the whole floor and everyone listening in with the utmost respect for her story. She felt her heart swell with a bit of happiness that total strangers would be so interested in her story and care so much about her safety through it all. It surprised her as much as it pleased her.

The man from before spoke up with disgust. "Damn...I really hope those bastards got what they deserve."

Abel scoffed. "Oh yes...he did...they truly did." Her memories were a bit foggy that day but just hearing the sounds of those men screaming as her sister killed them all...was still engraved in her memories. "In the end...I was taken home and learned a valuable life lesson that day."

He nodded his head and looked satisfied with her answer. "Damn...I really do hate that... Hell, you look young enough to be my daughter!" He exclaimed with a red face. "I'll tell you this...for your sister to go so far to save you...you got one hell of a sister, but she really shouldn't have done that alone. Anything could happen."

It's funny that you can tell a parent when they speak. Abel guesses that he has a daughter that's probably 18, maybe 19.

"Oh, I agree with you...but my sister is a special case," Abel said.

"What? Is she like special ops or something?"

"Something like that, yes." Can't really go explaining her sisters with words that haven't been invented yet.

Macy started to feel her head throbbing. "Son of a bitch...I came for a drink and didn't expect to get such a wack story." She rubbed her temples. "Shit man...I'm glad you're alright. I'm hoping now that your new man doesn't screw this up." She felt Abel's warm hand caressed the top of her head.

Abel's warm smiled brightened up the room. "It may seem like we're having a fight but...I truly, without a doubt, love that man with all my heart." Abel began to feel her phone buzz in her pocket. She furrowed her brows and looked at the ID and saw Rhodey calling her. "Excuse me." She got up to step outside to answer the phone. "Rhodey?" She said and heard the sound of music on the other end with people cheering.

"Abel? Hey, can you hear me?" His voice sounded rough and irritated. "Where the hell are you right now?"

"At a bar." Abel narrowed her eyes and got in her car, slamming the door shut. "Is that Tony's party I hear behind you? How's it going?"

"It's going to Hell is where it's going." He shouted back when there was a sudden repulser blast in the background along with glass shattering.

Abel pulled the phone away from her ear. "What in the world...? What's going on back there? It sounds like a stampede."

A deep growl came from him. "I'm done with him. Completely done. Abel, you need to come back and put an end to this, you hear me! Something is wrong with him. I don't know what it is but all I'm sure of right now is that he's sick! Do you understand? He's sick and..." Another blast. "Being a real pain right now."

Abel felt her muscles clench up and stiffen. She dropped the phone and placed it against her heart and closed her eyes for a moment before bringing it back up to her ear. "I already knew that." Her voice dropped and Rhodey fell silent.

"What do you mean you already knew? This whole time?"

"That's right, before Monaco. I waited all this time because I wanted him to tell me himself. I wanted him to trust me enough for him to ask for help but...he never did. The panic got to him and he freaked out on me last night. That's why I left." She leaned against the door and rubbed her head. "I'm sorry for leaving, Rhodey, but I didn't know how to react to it. This was the first time it happened."

"Okay...okay, I understand, but you need to get back here and calm him down. Can you do that, Abel? Can I trust you to do that?"

Abel took in a breath and looked outside. "Who do you think I am? Before that though, I need you to keep him busy. Go down to his workspace and get one of his suits, okay?" She brought out her keys and started up her car. "I'll be there soon."


	7. The Rage Of An Immortal

THE RAGE OF AN IMMORTAL

Rhodey did as Abel told him and worked on an idea to hold Tony off until she got there. He literally flew downstairs to his workspace, unlocked the door, and about ripped it off. His eyes scanned the space and narrowed in on the silver suit of Mark 2 on display and knew...what he had to do.

* * *

"I'm only gonna say this once," Rhodey announced himself to the crowd of party people, now dressed in the silver Ironman suit. "Get out." His helmet slipped down and everyone didn't question him speak a word, just left the scene for Tony and Rhodey to face down one another. "You don't deserve to wear one of these. Shut it down!" He ordered in a firm and soldier-like fashion that was seething with anger.

Tony was obviously hammered by the constant drinking he was doing all night, and the night after Abel left. He had made a mess of his home because of the party and was using the Ironman suit like it was a literal toy now.

He turned around to looked back to the DJ who was hiding behind his equipment. "Goldstein." He called to him.

The man lifted his head above his laptop. "Yes, Mr. Stark?"

"Give me a phat beat to beat my buddy's ass." He cracked a wide grin as a laugh came out, and immediately, Dangerous by Thomas Bergersen started to play (Mini-Note: Remember this song).

Rhodey grabbed Tony from behind. "I told you to shut it down!" He shouted.

Tony rolled his eyes and his helmet slid down. He activated his thrusters and launched each other back and through the walls into the boxing room. Rhodey crumbled to the ground but Tony was able to steady himself easily.

"Now, put that thing back where you found it before someone gets hurt." Tony began to walk away when a dumbell was thrown at the back of his head. "Really?" He grabbed a weight and held it up like a bat, slamming it into Rhodey. "Sorry pal, Ironman doesn't have a sidekick."

Rhodey chuckled and picked himself off the floor. "Let's just get one thing straight. When it comes to you and Abel...you're definitely the sidekick in her story."

Tony felt his body clench up with the name. "You have no right to say that name."

"Give me a break. You're the one who locked her out, lied to her, and made her cry...I'm not someone to judge people's relationship but...it ain't looking too good for you right now."

Tony was silent for a whole minute under his helmet where his expression remained to be unseen. "Alright...I had enough." He held his arms up when Rhodey came from beneath and uppercut him into the next floor, Tony and Abel's room.

"Had enough?" Rhodey flew up through the massive hole in the floor.

* * *

"Natalie!" Pepper called for Natalie who came running up to her.

"Miss Potts."

"Don't you 'Miss Potts' me! I'm on to you. You know what? Ever since you came here-" She was unable to finish her sentence when Tony and Rhodey came crashing through the ceiling and started to whale on each other.

"Pepper!" Happy came running in and grabbed her. "Get out of here. Get out of here now!" He led her outside the house where the crowd was standing and watching the beat down.

They punched each other back and forth like it was a classless bar fight. Rhodey would hit him but Tony would come back harsher and more ruthless. He grabbed his buddy's head and slammed it into the bar where he ceased to move, winning the fight.

Tony turned around to all the party people who stared at him with large and frightful eyes when he suddenly screamed at them in a loud voice that mixed with anger, dread, and confusion. It was scary enough that made them all scatter and finally leave the premises.

Rhodey came up behind him and knocked him out with a sink and countertop. Tony flew into the fireplace that burst with hot and fierce flames. He yanked himself out and face down Rhodey, lifting his hand to launch a repulsor blast.

"Put your hand down." Rhodey lifted his hand that glowed a white light.

"You think you got what it takes to wear that suit?" Tony growled at him.

"We don't have to do this, Tony."

"You wanna be the War Machine, take your shot."

"Put it down!"

"You gonna take the shot?!"

Tony finally cut the ties and launched a blast at his friend when the white light suddenly collided with something halfway. The figure was blinded and bathed in the light before a hand shot out from the blast and covered Tony's hand and closed off the blast hole. Abel stood in front of him now with stern and stone eyes that glared with deep intensity. It was so harsh and intimidating that Tony felt like he wasn't allowed to breathe in her presence.

Abel's hand was severely burned all the way to the bone, but she shook the wound and steam off no problem and looked over to Rhodey with a face utterly calm but with a low voice. "It's fine now, Rhodey. You can go." She said nothing more to him and slowly looked down at Tony with frustrated eyes.

Rhodey took her word for it and flew off with Tony's suit and vanished in the darkness of the night sky, leaving Tony alone to his fate with the angry immortal. God help that man because this may be the first time he ever saw Abel make such an expression that was so utterly stern and intimidating. It radiated power and respect.

After the adrenaline rush was over Tony felt his bones shake and his skin bruised all over. "Oh man...that's not going away anytime soon." He mumbled.

"Of course it won't," Abel said in a slow and low voice that sounded ice-cold to him. "The suit only takes you so far when paired up against someone who can hit back just as hard." She crossed her arms.

"Oh yeah? What would happen to the suit if it went up against you?" He now wished he didn't say that when he saw the shift in Abel's eyes. The same shift when she faced down Stane alone. Her eyes were as impenetrable as a storm and as old as every mountain on this planet. They were shaped by the world at its worse and manifested to look old and powerful. They were the eyes of an immortal woman who held deep disappointment.

And if that didn't hurt, then what else would.

"Alright..." Tony gave in and his helmet slid up. His face was badly bruised. "What did he say to you?"

"Everything," Abel answered immediately with the same tone of voice.

"He's lying."

Abel's eyes went wide. "Excuse me?" She even sounded offended.

"He's lying. Do you really trust someone who flew away with my suit?"

"Our suit. Don't forget I helped you make that." She corrected firmly and gestured to the one he was wearing. "And I know Rhodey's not lying and if anything..." Abel began to take a heavy step towards him. "You seem to be the one who is keeping secrets."

All the air vanished from the face of the freaking earth and collapse in on itself. Tony immediately tried to cover it up with a laid back approach. "Sorry, but I literally don't have the slightest idea what you are..."

"I already know about the palladium poisoning." She cut him off sharply. She stared at him dead in the eyes and he felt so little under her gaze. "I knew already about the problem...I didn't say anything though because...I wanted you to be the one to tell me." She clenched her teeth tightly and her eyes became glassy. "Why didn't you tell me?" She raised her voice when Tony walked past her.

Tony felt his heart quiver and sway with her words and didn't want to face her, so instead, he slammed his helmet back down. "I didn't want to make you worry." He spoke with a hoarse voice.

"Make me worry?" Her eyes were crinkled with disbelief. "Tony, did you honestly believe that I wouldn't find out?" She sounded offended while her voice became more and more distressed. "I know this stuff! I know when something is wrong. heartbeat, blood, eye focus and dilation, voice, and the smell of your blood as it became more and more poisonous throughout the week. I know it all! You..." She abruptly stopped her rant when her voice started to shake and become louder. She now spoke in a low and firm tone that sounded like it was barely held back by brittle bars. "You can't...no one is literally able to lie to me without me finding out. Every human on the face of this planet has the same lying pattern. Even you!"

"I was doing this for you, Abel!" He finally screamed at her for the second time ever and it felt like lava being poured down his throat. "I was trying to find a cure without you finding out because I didn't want to worry you! I didn't want you to cry or have a panic attack! Do you know how hard it was to keep this from you? You were grieving over my constant aging a few days ago, hating that I was getting one step closer to the grave while you...stayed the same." He tried to sound strong but was crumbling under the sheer pain of having to do this to her. "This was my problem and mine alone!"

"It is NOT!" Her voice belted out like a volcanic eruption that literally shattered the glass of every window that was left and cracked the ground under her feet. Lights flicked and popped out by the impact that almost knocked Tony to the ground. Abel tried to control herself but this feeling bubbled up in her chest till the point of it being painful. She didn't want to do that. It was an accident. Calmly though she recollected herself. "It is not your problem alone. You think you were doing it for me when in reality you were doing it for yourself. You were scared to face me. I get it. But...you didn't tell me when you knew I could help. We could have worked together! We could have figured it out together! And if we couldn't...then we would fail...together."

Tony felt his mind in shambled and he didn't want to speak anymore because it hurt too much. Confused, scared, and unable to know what was right from wrong anymore. Again, once again he messed up worse than before and thought that it was all over, that she finally lost the trust she had for him. That sense of dread made his stomach turn and his body quiver in his protective suit of armor. Yet, no kind of armor in the world could save him from this emotional breakdown that ate away at his once brilliant mind, now filled with alcohol and shame.

Abel's face contorted when Tony backed up into the road. "What are you...?" She knew exactly what he was planning on doing and started to march up to him. "Don't you dare!"

"Running away is easier." He activated his thrusters and fled into the night sky as Abel ran out of the house.

The tears began to fall from her brown and red eyes as she saw the flare of the thrusters disappear into the clouds. She couldn't breathe anymore and struggled to scream, her raw throat preventing her from piercing through the silent night. She stood utterly still, now in the shattered remains of a house and of mind, leaving her alone once again, in tears. "TONY!"


	8. Randy's Donuts

**RANDY'S DONUTS**

Of all places, Tony ended up on the inside of a large donut with a sign reading Randy's Donuts on it. It was actually what he was eating at the moment.

"Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut."

Tony looked down and dropped his sunglasses. He saw Nick Fury standing in the empty parking lot beside Abel, and he knew when he saw the look on her face...that he was in trouble. Can't run away this time because he truly believed she would swat him out of the sky like a bug if he did.

* * *

"You're mad. I can tell." Tony dropped his head on the table on the inside of the donut place. He sat beside Abel with Nick Fury across from them.

Abel was quiet for a moment and that was torturest. "I'm not mad...just a little disappointed." She said with her voice made of velvet and probably buzzsaws right now.

Might as well shoot Tony now and get him out of his misery. The earth better open up and swallow him whole. That was like the worse thing she could have possibly said to him. He felt a sharp pain throughout his body and didn't dare meet her gaze. It was like a parent scolding their child.

Abel sighed deeply and patted the back of his head. "I only wish...that I didn't have to figure it out the way I did. Did you really think you could hide something like this from me?" She actually sounded offended.

The smell of blood with a hint of palladium in it, that strange green drink he was constantly having to keep the symptoms at bay. She picked up on it all.

"Ah...I was hoping to fool you long enough to find a cure but..." He was left speechless at his own excuse and just let himself melt under her warm hands.

Abel shook her head. "I had no idea where you ran off to so I had to call this guy, much to my own displeasure." She frowned and gestured to Fury.

Tony lifted his head. "I..." He began saying to Fury. "I'm sorry. I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I'm a bit hungover. I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm having..."

"I am very real." Fury said firmly. "Now aside from your superhuman girlfriend, I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."

"Just my luck. Where's the staff here?" Tony looked at the inside of the building and found not even a living soul in sight.

Fury noticed the black veins on Tony's neck. "That's not looking so good." He pointed out.

"I've had worse."

Abel roughly turned Tony's head to the side to get a better look herself. She bit her lip and ran her finger across the veins. "Tony... What..." She couldn't even bring herself to speak. She dropped her head into her hands and let out the world's most frustrating groan.

A SHIELD agent walked up to them. "We've secured the perimeter but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer."

Tony looked up and saw none other than Natalie now dressed in a SHIELD uniform. "You're fired." He blurted out under his breath.

"That's not up to you." She said and sat beside Fury.

Abel scoffed and looked her dead in the eyes. "Hello again, Natalie... Or should I say Natasha Romanoff." She smirked at Natasha.

Tony paused for a moment. "You knew about this? Why didn't you tell-"

"Why didn't you tell me that you were dying?" Abel said sharply and cut him down at the knees. "She's a shadow for SHIELD. I ran into her a couple of times in the past so I'd say we've been acquainted for a long time now.

Tony clamped his mouth and looked away from her heavy gaze. "Hi." He said to Natasha.

Abel crossed her arms and leaned back. "I'm guessing too that once they figured out you were ill, Fury asked her to look over you." Hit the nail right on the head with that. "They've tried to do something like that to me a long time ago but I caught on rather quickly and foiled their plans."

Tony lifted a brow. "How did they ever figure out that you were...you know." Gesturing to the immortality problem.

Abel's expression darkened a bit despite her attempt to keep her class. "A very, very particular reason." Her voice dropped faster than a bowling ball that smashed the ground on impact.

This was the first time Tony felt a great shudder from her and had this natural reaction to zip his lips as quickly as possible when she answered him. He was curious but...felt like he didn't have the right to know why she had such bad blood with them.

Tony dropped his head and sighed. "What do you want from me?"

"What do we want from you?" Fury cocked a brow. "You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with."

Abel sighed heavily like she was trying to release all her pent up stress that's been accumulating for the past week. Million of years from the past and Abel doesn't remember getting this stressed before, not even during her times participating in wars throughout history. The Mongol conquest was a lot less stressful than this. Even dealing with Emperor Nero was nothing compared to dealing with Tony.

Gosh...Nero was such an obsessive and insane man. She remembered when the fires started to spread in Rome just for the sake of trying to kill her and her sisters. Didn't work obviously.

Abel got up from the booth and grabbed a black case from off a table beside them that Natasha brought in. She unlocked the case and pulled out an injection gun. She didn't wait another minute and didn't even bother to explain what it was, just to punish him a little more for hiding everything.

She injected it into Tony's neck.

Tony shouted and grabbed his neck when he felt the needle puncture his skin. "Ow! What did you just do?"

Abel pulled his face towards her and saw the black veins under his skin slowly fade away. She smiled with contentment. "That's better." She ruffled his hair and sat back down.

"What was that?" He asked, still feeling his neck sting a bit but he was starting to feel better.

"Lithium dioxide. I had these guys pull a few strings to get some for me. It won't cure you but can ease the symptoms so you don't pass out while working." She explained.

Okay...he was now regretting not telling her anything if she can find a cure for the symptoms in under 24 hours. That's some mad brainstorming abilities.

Tony's fell with defeat. "Abel...I have been trying to find a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element." He went to slap his hand down on the table but Abel grabbed it and squeezed tightly.

"Tony..." She stared at him in the eyes. "You have no idea how big the world is yet. I've been everywhere and think I've seen everything this planet has to offer me...but no. To this day..." She leaned down and kissed his head, pressing her forehead against his. "It's full of bottomless surprises."

If it wasn't for Abel, Tony truly felt like he would sink into a depressed abyss where there was nothing but black waters upon even darker creatures lurking inside. Her words brought life into his chest and craved to only have her and nothing else in this world.

He didn't deserve her but...he will thank every God there was on this planet for making it possible to love such a woman.


	9. Forever Future

**FOREVER FUTURE**

Abel and Tony were back at home after a long day of being scolded like a child for running away. Tony would look up to Abel's eyes but would look away in the end out of shame for disappointing her.

She looked around the house and the state it was in. The floor was demolished and the walls were in shambles too. It was honestly just a big mess and Abel didn't even know where to begin in cleaning it up like new. Yes, it could be done by herself but she felt like there were more pressing matters to deal with.

A SHIELD agent walked up to Abel and handed her a file. She nodded her head and opened it up before speaking to Tony. "I've been meaning to say this to you but never got around to it. The arc reactor. I think it's unfinished technology." she said while pacing the house.

Tony looked at her, a bit confused. "No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my..." He felt his heart sped up a bit when Abel looked up from the files and smiled at him for the first time in forever. "You know..." he heard his voice crack.

"No. I believe Howard Stark, your father said that the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something...fantastic. Beyond my imagination. I can see it now, he was on to something that would kick off an energy race that was going to shatter the arms race like nothing. Believe me when I say he was on to something...not just big, but ginormous."

Tony eyed her. "Just him or Anton Vanko is on this too?"

Abel pulled a chair up and sat in front of him. "I had SHEILD give me a file on that." She waved the file around and opened it up. She flipped through the small stack of papers. "Anton Vanko saw this as nothing but an opportunity to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported, but when the Russians found out that he couldn't deliver they shipped him to Siberia. The man fell into a deep pit of rage that was fueled by 20 years worth of vodka drinking. His reasonable way of thinking drowned in it and shifted his own rage onto his son, the one we met in Monaco."

Tony frowned. "And what does he mean that I haven't tried everything. What haven't I tried?"

"No idea." Abel snapped the folder shut. "This would have been a lot easier for both of us if you had told me."

Here we go again.

"I didn't want to worry you." He tried to convince her that it was for her sake but the offended look that Abel gave him said differently.

"Tony— worry me. Please. Tell me that you're in trouble so I can help." She sighed deeply and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. "You are looking at someone who had not only years, not only decades but an endless amount of experience in every department known to man and beyond. If you had told me then we would have much more time to figure this out. But you decided to keep this from me and forced me to figure it out the hard way. I'm disappointed in you because you thought you could do this all by yourself." She reached over and grabbed his hands and squeezed them tightly. "Am I not your partner in all this?"

This woman knew the exact words to make his heart feel cold but at the same time warm. He knew he wasn't worthy of having such a woman by his side but having Abel say those words made him feel like he was the most important person in her life.

"What do you remember about your father?" Abel asked in her soft voice that sounded as fragile as glass but hid a great deal of strength in it.

"He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never told me he liked me. The happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school."

Abel smiled a bit. "That's not true." She shook her head.

"Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did."

"I never met him, per se, but..." Abel reached her hand up and held it against his face. She smiled when he leaned into it. "I know how people work. Humans have a tendency to act like how your father acted around you. Parents...no matter how much they may seem to dislike you...can never, never hate their own flesh and blood. It's not in their DNA... They can't scrub it clean and get rid of it, and they certainly can't rip it out. Time and time again I've seen parents seemly abuse their children, but deep in their hearts...I see their love for them come out in the strangest places."

Tony grabbed her hand and kissed it. "You really got a way with words."

Abel giggled and got back up. "And one more thing...your father was one of the founding members of SHIELD."

Tony froze. "What?" He felt his mouth dry up when this question began to spring forth from his mouth. "Abel...why do you hate these guys so much? It doesn't seem like you."

Abel was about to turn around when she froze in place. Tony immediately regretted asking because he saw her back tense up all of a sudden.

"They..." Abel began. "They did something horrible to my family a very long time ago...so I can never, never forgive them for what they've done," Abel said no more and Tony was too afraid to ask anything else. She walked over to a trunk and kicked it over between the two chairs. "Now then...let's get to work."

* * *

The truck was filled with Howard Stark's thinks. The blueprints of the reactor that was made by both him and Anton Vanko, newspapers articles, and old video reels. He popped one in and watched it mindlessly while sitting on a chair. Abel sat behind him at a desk, writing and taking notes down from a notebook she found in the case.

He looked back at her a couple of times and she would always know when he did so, looking up from her work and just smiling at him before looking back down. It makes his heart feel warm when he saw that smile he loved so much. Tony was so occupied with just staring at her when he was suddenly snapped back to reality when he heard his father say his name.

Both him and Abel looked back to the video reel. They saw a young Tony, just a child on screen, in the background messing with the model.

"Aw..." Abel laughed a bit and got up to get a look. "It's a mini Tony." She giggled and leaned on the back of the chair, ruffling Tony's hair.

Tony rolled his eyes and reached up to grab her hand and squeezed them. He held on and just watched his father, his deceased father talk to the camera like he was actually speaking to him.

"Tony. You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you."

Abel leaned her head down and saw the side of Tony's face, and for only a second, it looked like he was going to cry with the amount of strength he was putting on her hands to keep them close.

* * *

After a couple of hours, Tony decided to do a bit of good about the mess up he had at his party and when to talk to Pepper. That worried Abel because he said 'talk' and not 'apologize'. She's thinking he's probably going to find a way to apologize without actually...apologizing, in a way. So Abel decided to pass hurricane Pepper and stay at home to do more work, but with the TV running in the background instead.

Abel picked up her phone beside her and checked if she had any missed calls, but frowned when it was empty. It's already been a couple of days since Monaco and her interference, so she's expecting a call...from a certain someone.

Her attention was drawn away when the news came on and Ivan Vanko's name came up about his sudden death. Abel felt her body grow could when she saw his face on the screen and said nothing, but only listened in to the report about how a sudden fire broke out and his charred body was found in his cell.

Abel was a bit lost for words because it was so sudden, but a moment of silence held the room and made it feel like time has slowed to a halt.

She had the natural talent to tell lies from the truth, so Abel saw no indication that this was fake in the report that they were given. But if it was under the table, and that they purposely set this whole thing up was another thing.

"Something on your mind, ma'am," Jarvis spoke up.

Abel leaned her head against her hands and stared at the TV as the lights and pictures flashed across her eyes.

"Jarvis... _everything_...is on my mind. Not one moment is it resting, always firing off ideas or thoughts of the past. My mind is in a constant shamble of anxiety and burning with endless nightmares of...eternity." She spoke in a voice that dripped with an icy chill.

In a way...she longed for death, to end it all and have no worries about the Forever Future that she knew would plague her until the world started to crumble.

She would remain here.

She would...always be here.

Abel would...be here...with no end in sight.

The pit in her stomach grew every day with thoughts like those and sometimes, in a single blink, 10 years would have passed without her hardly realizing.

The 14th century was one of those times where it felt like she blinked and it was gone, good thing was that it was boring, so she didn't really mind.

The only thing that was really interesting (Interesting, not entertaining. Abel still didn't like it) about that was the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death.

And then there was the 15th century. A little better but this was one where she felt every day go by.

She met Joan of Arc, a lovely woman. Abel tried to help her out as much as she could but was forced to leave because of immortal problems. Stick around too much and people began to notice that you're not aging.

Matthias Corvinus was there too. He was an interesting fellow with an impressive army, but Abel had the misfortune of knowing him when he was courting women to be his third bride. He proposed to her but Abel politely declined and got the devil out of there before he could say anything otherwise.

He still wasn't as bad as Nero was. That man was still awful.

"There sure was a lot of time before now," Abel mumbled and rubbed the back of her head. She looked over her shoulder and saw her phone light up with Tony's name printed on the screen.


	10. New Element

**NEW ELEMENT**

Abel jogged out and saw Tony pull up beside the house. He had three large panels from the old Stark Expo model in his car, sticking up in the air and looking incredibly awkward.

She frowned at the sight. "How many diplomas do you have again? And you couldn't figure out how to compact them down so they wouldn't stick up like this?"

Tony cocked a brow at her snarky comment. "I was a little busy." He defended himself but Abel only scoffed.

"Oh yeah?" She reached her arms out and worked on getting the panels out of the car. "How did apologizing go with Pepper?"

"Ah..." Tony's brain wasn't able to come up with an excuse fast enough that would work on an immortal. Thinking about it though, she probably already heard every excuse there was on this planet.

"So it didn't go..."

"No...not really."

Abel wasn't surprised. She knew how prideful Tony was and how hard it must have been to admit that he was wrong. She had a feeling that this was going to happen but made it a point to not step in and help. Tony was a grown-up and this was _his problem_ that he needed to fix.

Abel sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Why did you even bring these things back?"

* * *

Tony and Abel stood beside each other and stared at the Stark Expo model from 1974. Abel's old eyes picked up on what Tony was so eager about and why he suddenly brought the model back home.

"So...?" Tony said with anticipation. "What do you think?"

Abel held her hand up to her lips and stood in silence for at least another minute until she spoke. "I see what you're getting at. But we'll need a manipulable projection first. Jarvis." She called out.

"Already working on it, ma'am," Jarvis responded and scanned the model. "1974 Stark Expo model scan complete."

Tony reached down and picked up the holographic blue projection and guided it away from the model. "How many buildings are there?" He asked.

"Am I including the Belgium waffle stands?" Jarvis asked.

"That was rhetorical. Just show me." He snapped his fingers and send the scan spinning while Abel pulled up two chairs for them to sit on. They sat down in front of the model that was lifted upright to have a better look. "What does that look like to you?" He asked Abel.

"Like an atom, if that's what you mean." Abel reached her hand out and tapped the model scan. "If that was the case then this would be the nucleus."

"Highlight the Unisphere. Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them." Tony said and swatted his hand.

"What is it you're trying to achieve?" Jarvis asked.

Tony pondered on it. "I'm discovering...Correction. I'm rediscovering a new element, I believe."

Abel swiped her hand and began to flick away things inside the model that shouldn't be there. "Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees. Parking lots, exists, entrances. Structure the protons and neutrons using the pavilions as a framework."

"There! Right there." Tony pointed out. He clapped his hands and expanded the model. No, the new element. It was a new element that was hidden inside the model. He gave a weak laugh and spun around in his chair. "Dad. Dead for almost 20 years, and still taking me to school." he snapped down the model to fit in his hand. He stared at the ball of light and smiled up at Abel.

"The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium," Jarvis said. "Unfortunately, it is impossible to synthesize."

Tony grinned and got up from his chair. "Get ready for a major remodel, fellas. We're back in hardware mode."

* * *

The whole house was in shambles with holes in the walls, floor and wires being pulled through and large coils being brought in. Abel did almost all the heavy lifting, but because of that, they were almost done. The only thing left was trying to level the coils up perfectly so their science fair project would work.

Coulson opened the door and walked in to see them hard at work. "I heard you broke the perimeter." He said.

"Yeah. That was, like, three years ago." Tony said.

Abel frowned when she saw Coulson but took note that he's been gone for a long time. "Where have you been all this time?" She asked.

"I was doing some stuff." He answered shortly, lucky for him, Abel shrugged it off.

"Yeah, well, so were me and Abel," Tony said and placed a leveler on the coils. "Hey, we're playing for the home team Coulson, you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let us work or break our balls?

Coulson looked around at all the old stuff Tony brought out of storage. He reached into a trunk and pulled out what looked to be an unfinished star shield. "What's this doing here?"

Abel laughed when she saw the shield. "Oh wow. Now that brings back memories." She smiled. "Good times, good times..."

Tony looked at it and his eyes lit up. "That's it. Bring that to me."

"You know what this is?" Coulson asked.

"It's exactly what I need to make this work." He reached over and grabbed the shield. "Abel, lift the coil."

Abel fitted her hands under the coil and lifted the heavy think up, no problem. Tony moved the shield underneath and looked at the leveler, grinning now.

"Perfectly level." He said and looked back at Coulson. "Now, what do you want?"

"Nothing. Goodbye." Coulson suddenly said, which generally surprised Abel. "I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."

"Fantastic. Land of Enchantment."

"So I'm told."

"Secret stuff?"

"Something like that. Good luck."

"Bye." Tony offered his hand out and shook Coulson's. "Thanks."

"We need you."

"Yeah, more than you know."

"Not that much." Coulson turned to head out the door when Abel called back for him for some reason. He turned back around...and felt his skin shiver when he saw a smile on Abel's full lips. He knew that she would never smile at him or his people so the reason behind it must be a bad thing.

Abel took in a deep breath. "Just for the record. My dear older sister...is currently enjoying a little holiday in New Mexico right now. So...try not to make too much noise while you and your people are over there. If you do happen to see her though, tell her I said 'Hi'." Abel bid him farewell with a smile that didn't exactly reach her ears. She snickered a bit when she saw a nervous shift in Coulson's eyes right before he left.

* * *

The coils were in place, the reflective mirror for the laser was set, and Abel was at the wheel, ready to spin it towards the triangle that was set down on a table before them. All was perfect and Tony had to admit, this went so smooth now that she was helping him.

"How we looking, sweetheart?" Tony walked up to Abel as she began to tie her hair up and out of the way

"Everything's all set." She nodded her head and dropped her hands down on the wheel.

The lights dimmed and the device was slowly turned on. Power began to surge through the coils as a white-hot laser shot out of the reflective mirror. It punctured the wall and burned a hole straight through it. As Abel spun the wheel, it began to cut everything in its way as she quickly tried to line the laser up with the triangle.

"Ah, Tony?" Abel grimaced when the laser cut right through a shelf and fell over.

"It's fine. Just keep going." He assured her and watched as the laser concentrated on the triangle and began to glow blue, only then did he shut the power down. "That was easy."

Abel leaped over the coils in front of her and grabbed a pair of pliers off the table. She leaned down and picked the glowing triangle up as her stomach began to flutter with excitement. She took a breath and stared at this beauty right before her eyes. She smiled warmly and looked at Tony. "Congratulations, Tony. You just created a new element."

Tony cocked a grin. "That like...has to put me in the lead. With you, right?"

The immortal lady smirked. "Oh, darling...you are about two elemental discoveries behind."

* * *

Abel was now doing her part of the job and had a personal hand in scanning the triangle with a magnifying glass. She didn't want to leave an opening to where this thing would be harmful to Tony if he was going to put it in his chest to replace the palladium core. She wanted to make extra, extra sure that it was safe for him to use. She's been looking over it for over four hours now and the sun had finally vanished, night taking shape.

Tony was exhausted since he's been up all night and the previous one too. He was about ready for bed when he walked downstairs to see Abel still working like a hard oiled machine.

"How's everything go?" He asked and walked up behind her to see all her notes and findings of the new core. "Anything fishy?" He picked a sheet of paper up to try and make sense of it but noticed that half of it wasn't even in his own language. It's cute but strange. When Abel was hard at work and focused on a project, she had a habit of writing her notes down with a different language, probably her native one.

Abel pulled her eyes away from the glass and rubbed them. "No. It's honestly working splendidly right now. I'm not finding any problems at the moment." She stretched her arms out above her head.

"So you're done then, right? Ain't it time to go to bed?"

Abel shook her head. "No. Not yet. I was planning on at least taking another four hours in analyzing this thing."

Tony sputtered out his words when he heard that. "F-Four...Haven't you analyzed it enough? It's fine, sweetheart. You can check it out tomorrow." He tried to assure her but convincing an immortal woman was near to impossible.

"I can't. I was going to head to the Hammer's Expo tomorrow with Pepper and Natasha. I wanna see what he's done with your suit." She said and saw Tony's face fall with annoyance.

"That you had Rhodey fly away in?" He brought up and Abel lightly slapped him on the arm.

"It's Hammer, Tony." She said bluntly. "I'm not sure he's capable of adding to something that is already brilliant. Mess it up though, yes. He is very capable of...not making anything that works." She's not worried, just curious about how far he got with one of Tony's suits.

"Ah-huh..." Tony said and a silence fell between them. He felt his mind began to wander as this question spilled from his mouth with him hardly realizing. "Abel I, uh..." This was a bit of a struggle to get out but he just had to know. "I hate to ask this but...are yous still mad at me?"

Abel cocked a brow. "What?"

"Well...it's not like we talked about it since we started working on a new core."

"It's because we were both busy."

"So you are still mad at me?"

"No. I'm not." She spoke firmly and stood up in her chair. "Tony, I never was mad at you to begin with."Her hands reached up to the sides of his face and spoke in the sweetest voice he had ever heard. "Hey, come here." She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead, holding him in her arms until he melted against her gentle and warm hands. He lifted his arms and wrapped them tightly around her body and literally spun her in the air, much to her surprised shriek.

He held her tightly and didn't want to part from her. "I love you." He felt his own heart burst from his chest and his body grew hot.

Abel giggled and rubbed her head into his neck. "I love you too...so much," she said in but a whisper.

That was it. Tony thought he could hold back, he was sure he could, but her voice just now...the way it sounded and drew out in this low, raspy speech was like the breaking point for him. "You know what. Forget about the core. Jarvis can handle it." He abruptly said and took Abel by her hand, leading her away from her work.

Abel fumbled a bit. "Wait, wait. Tony. Jarvis doesn't have to handle it. I can do it myself."

"Didn't we have unfinished business?" He cocked a brow and looked over his shoulder at her.

"Unfinished business? But we already finished..." Abel stopped herself as the gears in her head began to spin...and spin...and spin.

* * *

_Her voice was an addicting drug to his ears. He could fall asleep if she told him to rest. He would cry if she started to cry. He would get angry if she got angry. Once again he found himself willingly falling under her spell and could drown in this temporary heaven which was being in her presence. To have her in his arms and know, from the bottom of his heart, that she belonged to him and only him. All kinds of common sense melted away from his mind when this hunger sank deep into his heart. Without thinking, his body moved instinctively and their lips melded together. She gasped from the sudden shock of it all but it only deepened the more she tried to comprehend what was happening. Abel was incapable to think anymore and this feeling washed over her that she had never felt or experienced before in her life._

* * *

"Oh..." Abel's face began to heat up to this bright, bright red and when she spoke, her voice cracked.

Tony grabbed the back of Abel's head and a fist-full of her blonde hair. He bent her head back and began to kiss her, almost violently until the air disappeared between their locked lips. They parted for only a moment to take the chance to breathe before Tony took the opening and deepen the kiss, totally securing her in his arms too. This was one moment Abel didn't want to escape from though and she held onto him just as tight. Their bodies turned hot and it felt like any moment now they would melt into each other. Tony suddenly picked Abel up and she immediately wrapped her legs around him as he carried her up the stairs.

* * *


	11. Let's Take This Outside

**LET'S TAKE THIS OUTSIDE**

She hummed a lovely melody to herself with her equally delightful voice that sounded like angels singing him a lullaby after a, uh...long night. Abel stood in front of a mirror and haven't looked more gorgeous before if that was even possible. She wore a long and fluffy black evening dress with a lace chest and sheer sleeves. It reached the ground and had a slit up the front that exposed her legs and black heels every time she took a step.

Tony felt like he couldn't take his eyes off her. "God...can't believe I found you in a dark cave," He mumbled under his breath but of course Abel heard him and laughed.

She turned around and immediately frowned. Her face drained of all color and became a stark white before glowing a bright red. Tony had his phone up and on her and was apparently filming. "How long have you been recording me?" She exclaimed in a frantic voice since she didn't know how long he's been doing it.

"I couldn't turn it on fast enough so I only got the humming." He grumbled and continued to film, getting Abel in all her panicked and beautiful glory. "Still, I ain't complaining." Tony laughed when Abel raced for the phone.

"This isn't funny. Turn it off, please." She covered the lens with her hand and fiddled with it for a minute before finding the off button.

* * *

Tony chuckled to himself as he watched the one minute video he managed to record on the big screen. He knew this gem was one he was gonna save to his personal files. No way was he going to delete such a beautiful short film. He already had five screenshots from the film and had the best one up as his computer desktop. It has only been a couple of hours after Abel left with Pepper and Natasha to check out Hammer's show-and-tell about the suit that HE made. Truth be told, he was a little down that Abel was going without him, only because he didn't want any other man looking at her and fantasizing about his girl.

"Incoming call with a blocked number, sir," Jarvis informed him.

"My phone privilege is reinstated. Lovely." Tony rolled him and his chair over to his computer and answered the call. "Coulson. How's the Land of Enchantment?"

It wasn't Coulson on the other end. The voice was lower and more rumbling. "Hey, Tony, how you doing? I doubled the cycle." It didn't take a genius to pick up who it was. Ivan Vanko.

"You what?" Tony repeated to make sure his mind was playing with him.

"You told me double cycle's more power. Good advice."

Tony remembers Abel telling him about Vanko's death. He trusts her that she wasn't lying. She would never lie, so the news was probably the one who was wrong. "You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy."

"You too."

"Complements to my girlfriend." Tony quickly muted his speaker. "Trace him," he ordered Jarvis.

Vanko continued. "Now, the true history of Stark's name will be written."

"Jarvis, where is he?" Tony said.

"Accessing the Oracle Grid. Eastern Seaboard." Jarvis narrowed down as much.

"What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes."

Tony turned off the mute. "Don't not forget that Abel finished you off in like 10 seconds."

Ivan scoffed. "Your inhuman girlfriend...I don't see the problem in dealing with her."

That made Tony's blood boil a bit. His voice dropped. "Don't look down on my girl. She's so much more than meets the eyes. For her, it would be like a lion going up against a puppy."

Vanko scoffed at the accusation. "I would like to believe that, but that will not happen again."

"Tri-State area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs." Jarvis said.

"I hope you're ready." Vanko hung up.

Unfortunately, Jarvis was unable to get a location. "Call trace incomplete."

Tony slumped back in his chair. His eyes glanced over to his computer screen and saw an advert for Hammer's presentation. He narrowed his eyes and got up off his chair and grabbed his new arc reactor.

"Sir." Jarvis began.

"You want to run some tests, run them. And assemble the suit while you're at it. Put it together now." He said and began to place it in the center of his chest.

"We are unclear as to the effects."

"Abel said that it was harmless so that's good enough for me." The reactor began to power up and glow a bright, blinding blue light. "That tastes like coconut. And metal. Oh wow, yeah!"

* * *

The whole stadium was filled to the max with people, much to Abel's surprise. The music began to play and the lights dazzled their eyes. Abel wasn't one to cringe easily. But she did here. Oh, she cringed right into the 3rd dimension when the music began to place and Hammer danced his way to the stage with not even close to as much style as Tony did when he did his expo entrance.

"Ah~ No..." Abel wimped and closed her eyes, waiting for it to be over and for the man to get on with his presentation of failure that she was sure was going to happen. "Pepper, tell me when it's over."

Pepper was cringing just as bad and didn't blame Abel for covering her eyes. "I don't think it would hurt if you kept your eyes closed through the whole thing."

Hammer finished his little dance of humiliation up to the podium. "Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Thanks for coming. Ladies and gentlemen, for far too long, this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm's way, but then the Iron Man arrived, and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly, that technology was kept out of reach. That's not fair. That's not right. And it's just too bad."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Oh, Lord."

Abel kept her eyes closed. "Is it over?"

"No, not yet."

Hammer continued. "Regardless, it was an impressive innovation, one that grabbed the headlines the world over. Well, today, my friend, the press is faced with quite a difficult problem. They are about to run out of ink." His joke fell on deaf ears and only earned a few pity claps from the audience. His podium was removed and he tried to hurry up with his presentation. "Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you the new face of the United States military. The Hammer drone."

The floor opened up and large suits of armor rose from the ground, each group representing the army, navy, air force, and marines. Abel felt her heart began to speed up as her muscles clenched. She gazed upon the suits with shock, totally not expecting Hammer to come up with such a presentation in such a short amount of time and for them to actually look exceptional. They weren't suits at all, they were actual drones.

"Somethings not right." She mumbled to herself and brought her phone out, feeling her stomach began to twist.

Hammer continued. "Today I am proud to present to you the very first prototype in the variable threat response battle suit and its pilot, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes."

Abel dropped her phone into her lap when she saw Rhodey rise up from the ground in a very Iron Man-like suit that had been modified heavily with a big gun now strapped to his shoulder. "Rhodey?" Abel's voice shook but she jumped a bit when she felt her phone began to buzz with Tony's name on the screen. "Hello?" She answered on the second ring.

Tony didn't greet her or anything like that, and when he spoke he sounded anxious. This caught Abel off guard and made her get nervous. "I need you to do something right now, sweetheart." He urged her. "I need you to slow down Hammer."

Abel shook her head. "Tony. Somethings not right. These suits, uh, drones..." She watched the drones with troubled eyes, including the obvious arc reactor that was powering these giant suits. "They're not made by Hammer. No way is he capable of coming up with this."

"It's because Hammer wasn't the one who made them." His voice sounded muffled for some reason. "It was Vanko. He's behind this. He's behind all of it. Hammer's been working with him."

"What..." Abel sucked in a deep breath as her voice drew out to a low and ominous whisper. Her eyes locked on Hammer and they slowly, slowly narrowed as all the voices and cheers sounded hallow around her. "Get here as fast as you can." She said in a low growl.

"I'm on my way now. Be careful." Tony warned her before hanging up.

Abel sat in her chair very quietly for at least another minute and looked around the stadium. She scoped out all the exits and scanned all the heartbeats and voices in the area but none of them matched up with Vanko, she would know if they did. Vanko wasn't here. He wasn't even in the area. She took in another deep breath and got up, heading down the path towards the stage.

Pepper looked up. "Abel? Where are you going?"

It was like the whole stadium began to pick up on this tension that was in the air and watch this beautiful woman as she marched with purpose up the stairs and right on to the stage that Hammer had finally taken notice too. Hammer tried to play everything off with a laugh and held his hand up to his security guards from taking away this small woman.

"Ah, sweetheart, you know we're still in the middle of presen-" His words were cut off when Abel's hand shot up and grabbed his neck. His fully grown body was then lifted off the ground by this strange woman and his legs dangled and kicked in the air, losing strength immediately.

Her brown eyes hid a lightning storm that burned into his living will and made him feel fear to the very center of his core. Abel's voice was soft but also had a hidden dark rumble to it. "I'm only going to give you one chance to answer me correctly before I get angry, my dear sir." This woman demanded in the most bone-shaking tone that could even make mountains tremble. "Where. Is. Vanko?"

Hammer felt his airway being closed up as his legs suspended in the air. Abel's long and elegant fingers wrapped around his neck like a noose that was getting tighter and tighter the more he struggled. He desperately began to call for his security now. "What are you...doing! Get...her!" He managed to breathe out before he was finally dropped to the ground.

Security seemingly snapped out of their daze by this woman's demonstration of her monstrous strength. They ran out on the stage and tried to cut her off, reaching their arms out to make a grab at her as Abel remained motionless and utterly calm. The calm before the storm.

Rhodey saw the impending danger that Abel might have to inflict if they made contact with her. He raised his voice urgently to the clueless security charging at the monster-of-a-woman. "Wait, wait, wait! I wouldn't!"

Before they could make the impossible capture of humanities second born, a loud whirring noise and thrusters blasted through the night as the original Iron Man suit made a hard landing right in front of Abel, stopping the security in their tracks. The crowd literally went nuts upon his arrival and cheered.

Tony snapped his head up to scan over Abel, making sure she was alright (but of course she was). "You good?" He asked and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Abel smiled warmly at the kind gesture and grabbed his armored, yet cold hand. "Yeah." She said in a dreamy-like whisper.

He took a breath and ruffled her hair before looking at Rhodey. "We got trouble." He said.

"Tony," Rhodey began in a weary voice. "There are civilians present and Abel just suddenly grabbed Hammer like he was a rag doll. Let's not do this right now."

"All these people are in danger." Tony insisted. "We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust us for the next five minutes."

"Yeah, I tried that. I got tossed around your house, remember?"

Abel stepped up and spoke more firmly. "Hammer's working with Vanko." She said in a sharp whisper.

Rhodey paused for a moment. "Vanko's alive?" He tried moving his armor but found it locked in place and moments later his vision was filled with Russian text that flooded into his helmet "Whoa, whoa, whoa! He shouted and his gun suddenly took aim to Abel's forehead that she immediately flinched away from. "Abel, watch out!" He shouted.

Abel backed up near the edge of the stage with nowhere to go, facing down the barrel of the gun that began to power up by spinning. "Rhodey?"

Tony reached to grab Abel by her arm but the gun suddenly took aim at him when he tried to move one inch. "Is that you?"

"No, I'm not doing that. It's not me. I can't move. I'm locked up!" It wasn't just Rhodey's suit that's been hacked, for all the other drones began to move on their own and take aim to both Abel and Tony who stood there In the face of danger. "Get out of here! Both of you!" Rhodey screeched. "This whole system's been compromised!" The gun suddenly shot a few round and barely missed Abel's face if she wasn't quick enough to duck down. "Abel, run!"

"What?" She exclaimed and felt herself tilting on the edge of the stage. "But my secret!"

"Who cares! You need to get out of here! Run, Abel! Run!" He urged her and felt the gun winding up again for enough round.

Tony waved for Abel to leave. "He's right! Just get out of here! You cannot avoid it now! Run!"

The gun fired once again. Abel took one more step and fell back off the stage as the bullets flew right over her head. Her body twisted in the air but she was able to land gracefully on her feet with a hard thud. Beginning to hobble down the aisle, she groaned while struggling to get her heels off. Her now free feet slammed against the ground and she began to pick up speed. The air made a loud slapping noise from her body hitting against it, hitting a max limit of 90 or 80mph in under five seconds and in that time she was out of the stadium.

Tony activated his thrusters and began to hover in the air. "Let's take it outside." He said and flew out through the ceiling in a blink of an eye.

Out of Rhodey's control, he and the drones broke off into two groups and went after Abel and Tony while raining a hailstorm of bullets, not caring who was going to get caught up in the crossfire. After all, they were collateral damage anyways.


	12. Attack Of The Drones

**ATTACK OF THE DRONES**

" _'Laying there, I felt my very motivation to continue living drain from my body like blood from an open wound. I felt nothing, like a doll on strings'_ " Macy recited dramatically while waving her wrist around in the air.

"That's cheesy as hell." Her 15 year cousin, Connor rolled his eyes to the very back of his skull to make sure his brain was still intact. He was a few brain-cells short but whatever. He and his three friends have been stuck in the car with this woman for about an hour now and the whole time she's been making him write down everything she says for a book she was currently writing. Macy was supposed to be taking them to the mall for a late-night Grab an Go. She's still doing that but condoning them to this torturous pain of her ramblings.

"It is." One of his friends commented from the back seat.

Macy frowned. "No one likes the commentary from the peanut gallery." Her gunmetal eyes gave the kid a burning glare through the rearview mirror. "And it's the truth. When one's freedom is taken away from them, they lose the motivation to live."

Connor arched a brow. "I don't buy that. Wouldn't that...you know, make someone wanna fight for it more? Like, have you ever heard of the Fight and Flight Response."

Macy shook her head. "It doesn't work like that, dudebro. And you're missing the third option. There's a freeze option too, you know. Freeze. Everyone's mind works differently."

"No offense, Macy. But your character sounds weak." Connor stopped writing her words down a while ago and was just scribbling over all the other things she made him takedown.

"It's not my character. It's based on a true story."

"Yeah. Whatever." Connor paid no mind to her ramblings and continued to doodle.

Macy tried to take a glance over at his journal and keep at least one eye on the dark roads at the same time. "Did you even write anything I said down?"

"Yeah, yeah."

She finally took a glimpse at what Connor had done to her words and her eyes went wide. "Liar!" She stretched her hand out and tried to wrestle the journal out of his hands while keeping the other on the wheel.

"What—hey!" Connor looked up just in time to see Abel run out right in front of Macy's car. "Watch out!"

Everyone screamed their lungs out when the car wasn't able to stop in time. At full speed, it struck a surprise Abel head-on and came to a screeching halt upon impact. The car totally wrapped the front of the around her small body that somehow remained in place and standing. The car went dead and was left with a large, Abel-sized dent in the front where her body resided.

Macy's mouth hung open as the gears in her head slowly tried to process everything that had just happened, but unfortunately, Connor's mouth worked faster. "You hit her. Oh my, God! You just hit her! You just hit a person! You just full-on..wrapped your car around a girl!"

Abel suddenly yanked her head out of the engine with blood trickling down from her face that healed immediately. She looked up and saw Macy staring back at her with her mouth hung open, eyes wide and color draining from her skin.

"Macy?" Abel recognized the multi-colored hair and gunmetal eyes immediately. It was her new friend from the bar!

Macy gave a breathy answer. "A...Abel..."

Abel wasn't able to speak any longer and catch up with her friends when the alarming sound of thrusters reached her ears. Up in the sky, she could see the multiple bright arc reactors from the drones in the air. It was unfortunate because she thought she outran them. Apparently, they were as persistent as the one controlling them.

"Okay...Everyone out of the car! Out, out, out! You're car got totaled when you rammed me! I'll buy you a new one!" Abel, quite literally, ripped the door off the car and ushered everyone out and away for their own safety.

Abel tore the bumper off the car with her bare hands before placing herself at the side and backed up a few feet. She charged forward and hiked her leg up, slamming it up under the vehicle and kicking it high in the air, hurling the large chunk of metal right into half the drones that flew at her. Two more left!

"Hold on. Not yet!" Abel shouted to make sure the humans stayed back.

She held the bumper up over her right shoulder and twisted her body around, winding herself up before chucking it as hard as she could. Abel watched as the long stretch of metal ripped right through the rest of the followers. Their bodies crumbled back to the earth.

Abel sighed and looked down at herself, dusting her black evening dress off. "Shame. I really did like this dress." She turned around to Macy and the rest that stared at her with wide eyes of disbelief. "Now then...I would love to explain everything to you, but unfortunately, I'm in a mad hurry right now. So, if you would excuse me." She gave Macy and her friends an awkward wave before running off down the crowded streets of screaming people, heading towards the direction of the expo.

* * *

The streets flooded with the disease known as 'Panic' and 'Fear'. People ran out of the expo in fright, pushing each other aside to get away from the drones that came out too. The large chunks of metal mounted with weapons on their shoulders stationed themselves on the ground. They searched through the crowd of disoriented people for Abel's face (Since Tony was in the air) when they spotted something. There was a small child standing upon the crowd of panicked people. He wore a makeshift iron man mask with a gloved light in his hand. He was either fearless or foolish to stand up against the drones who honed in on him with their large weapons. Mistaken him for Iron Man, the large barrel on one of their shoulders slowly began to lower down on the child when Abel suddenly appeared behind the drone like a demon in black. She reached up and grabbed the barrel with her bare hand and began to squeeze with her inhuman strength until the barrel began to bend and bow. Finally, she ripped the gun off its shoulder.

"Kid, get down!" Abel shouted and held the barrel over her right shoulder as the child ducked down out of harm's way. She swung the barrel across the drone's body and ripped it in half. Small pieces from the bot scattered up and down the streets and the top and bottom half laid on the ground, slowly powering down as the light faded from the arc reactor in its chest. "It's alright now, dear. You can get up," she called out gently to the child.

The tiny human slowly rose up from the floor and stared at Abel through the small eye slits. She might be dressed black like a demon, but her face was nothing like that. Her smile was kind and her eyes were gentle...yet old at the same time.

"Ah, um..." the child tried to process his words fast enough to thank this woman if the sound of explosions hadn't rattled him just now.

Abel darted her head up to the night sky and could never mistake the red and gold coloring from Tony's suit being trailed closely by Rhodey and the drones right behind him. She guided the small child away at a safe distance and held the gun barrel above her head like she was about the throw it. Abel held her thump up over a drone and line in her shot as she leaned her body back. Her foot slammed hard into the ground and chucked the barrel through the air. It ripped across the night sky like a bullet and right on target, it struck one of Tony's pursuers right through the arc reactor, halting it in its track. The other drones couldn't stop quick enough and ran right into it and erupted on impact, almost all of them tumbled to the ground.

"Right on target." Abel giggled and waved Tony over to pick her up. She waited as he changed direction and began to fly quickly towards her. "Have a nice evening, child." She bid the young child farewell with her elegant, award-winning smile before being snatched up by Tony and disappearing into the sky.

* * *

"I'm sorry buddy. Had to thin out the herd." Tony called for Rhodey who had gone missing during Abel's interference. "Good job, by the way, Abel." He held his girlfriend by the arms as they flew through the pitch night with no more drones in pursuit, yet Rhodey was gone too.

Abel smiled. "Thank you."

"What's your 20?"

Rhodey then out of nowhere, descended from above and slammed right into them. Tony accidentally released Abel during the scuffle and all three of them began to tumble through the air and crash into the glass biodome. Abel held her breath and felt thousands of glass fragments pierce her body and deepen themselves into her skin upon the harsh impact that caused a cloud of dirt to fall around her. She whimpered and felt her bones shaking and breaking from the inelegant landing as a bomb could make. She believed her lungs rupture with a hep load of internal bleeding that would have made her cry and scream in pain if she hasn't already had this sensation before (It's been a long reckless life).

Tony groaned and pushed himself out of the small creek he landed in. He saw Abel a few feet away with a large amount of steam coming off her body. "Abel? Abel, are you okay?" He was unable to even go over to her when Rhodey suddenly tackled him to the ground and tried to shoot at him with the minigun on his shoulder. Tony pushed the gun away as it fired right beside his head and into the ground.

Air-filled Abel's lungs once again and she breathed in deeply, now very thankful for her fast regeneration ability that came with the immortality. "Oh...God in heaven. It's been a while since I had such a horrible landing." She rolled on her back and spat out some blood that steamed on the ground. She cracked her head to the side and felt her bones move back together and pop into place, and that was when she began to hear the sound of a gun going off. "Tony?" Her feet slid across the ground when she jumped up. "Tony!" Abel screeched and was upon Rhodey in a fraction of a second. She grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him across the creek. He stopped moving because his suit powered down all of a sudden.

"Reboot complete." Natasha's voice came over the communicator.

Abel sighed heavily with relief and rested her hands on her legs. If another moment went by then she might have ended up ripping the suit off of him to make Rhodey stop. "Once. Only once in your life, Agent Romanoff, I will thank you."

"I'll take it," she called back. "And well done on the new chest piece," she said to Tony. "I'm reading significantly higher output and your vitals all look promising."

"Yes, for the moment," Tony groaned while Abel helped him up. "I am not dying. Thank you."

"What do you mean you're not dying?" All the air got sucked out of Abel's lungs when she heard Pepper's voice through the communicator. "Did you just say you're dying?"

"Is that you?" Tony's voice cracked. "No, I'm not. Not anymore."

"What's going on?" Pepper demanded.

"I was going to have Abel tell you."

Abel was taken back by that. "Why were you going to have me tell her? You were the one who was dying."

"Yeah, but I think you would be better at telling her."

"Yeah, but it's still not my place to do it."

"I was going to make her am omelet and tell her but I changed my mind and thought you should do it." Tony defended himself but Abel only looked at him like he was crazy.

"An omelet? Really?" Abel looked baffled at his way of handling things. "Tony, you can't smooth over a problem with food."

"I know, but I thought you would be smoother than me."

Natasha cut in. "Hey, hey. Save it for the honeymoon. You got incoming. Looks like the fight's coming to you."

Abel was beginning to hear it too just as Natasha said that. The distinct sound of thrusters in the air was roaring and getting closer to the biodome with every second. Soon enough she could see the lights. "I'd say we have...13? Maybe?"

Tony began to tap Rhodey on the helmet. "Rhodes? Snap out of it buddy. I need you. They're coming. Get up."

Rhodey's helmet opened up. He looked rather out of it because of Abel's attack. "Oh, man...remind me never to get your girlfriend angry."

Tony cracked a smile and pulled his buddy off the ground. "Abel, how we looking?"

Abel narrowed her eyes as she gazed upon the night sky. Her eyes pierced through the darkness like night vision, so she could see everything as clear as daylight. "We got a few seconds to get into position."

"So what's the plan?"

Abel pointed to the high ground. "We're going to need to get above ground so we won't be in the kill zone. We need open space to move around too. If one of us get targeted or shot down then it's over. I can handle a lot of things by myself, but I will need you guys to watch each other's back, okay?" Abel turned around and found them staring at her with a dumbfounded look on their faces. "What?"

Tony was taken back by her military talk and commanding voice. "Nothing just...I really do forget how old you are" he said and Abel looked mildly offended by his comment. "Which is not a bad thing at all. You got a lot of experience so it's only natural that you have something, ah...cooking."

They were too busy chatting about a strategy that they never moved from the kill zone. The drones finally enclosed in on the biodome, surrounding them in seconds with the arc reactor lights glowing brightly in the damp air of the pond.

Abel cracked her neck to the side. "So be it then..."

The night was blasted away as the drones opened fire on them. Shells dropped to the ground and the sound of gunfire and the shaking from the ground never stopped. Everyone seemed to be moving in constant motion with every flash of light.

Abel felt her body get pierced by the bullets but it didn't stop her in her tirade of destruction. She pulled off the heads of the drones, ripped off metal sheets, and hurled them at the others like a deadly frisbee. She couldn't stop it...the smile planting to her lips as her body was literally shredded by the power of the automatics. Abel never waited for moments like this, like all-out war, but when they happened...she lived for the adrenaline through her veins that made her body scream with life. At that moment, she felt alive, invincible, and unmovable. The thirst was absolutely hypnotizing and her body seemed to move in naturally for the kill and duck away from lethal attacks that would kill her if she wasn't already...immortal.

It was natural. The feeling, the fight. Time and time again has she done the same song and dance and never once in her life has it gotten old. Never in her life had she had the privilege of losing a battle. If it's a game of waiting for the enemy out, she could wait till they became a skeleton. If it was a game of Last Man Standing...she would be the only one living.

It was a game that she didn't hunt down for the thrill of it...but be it a warning if you brought war upon her homelands.

"Rhodey, Abel, get down," Tony shouted over the chaos. He swung his arms as lasers sliced through the remaining drones.

Abel could feel her body burning away as the adrenaline rush settled down. She took a breath mixed with a small laugh. "Oh...I forgot about that thing." She blew the hair out of her eyes.

"I think you should lead with that next," Rhodey said.

"Yeah. Sorry boss. I can only use it once. It's a one-off." Tony popped the red hot shells out.

Abel strained to get back on her feet while her body steamed up and heal back into place. She let out a gasp and cracked her neck. "Hold on," she called out and looked back up to the sky. "We got one left."

Natasha called back. "She's right. This one looks different. Any idea what it is?"

Abel narrowed her eyes. "Of course I do."

The sky cracked with this whirling sound as a light flashed through the dark. A large suit of armor crashed down in front of them and stood tall. The helmet retracted and revealed Vanko. "Good to be back," he spoke. Vanko then directed his attention to Abel as her body continued to steam and heal before his eyes. "I had a feeling something was not right with you. You're not human," he spoke with thick curiosity.

Abel smiled, though it seemed more like a smirk really. "Oh, I'm human. You though, on the other hand, lost all right to be one." her voice made a grand dip in tone. It bathed in lava and was doused in ice water.

Vanko's helmet closed up as whips of electricity shot out from his arms and struck the earth with a loud crash.

"This ain't gonna be good," Rhodey said. "Abel, get back for a bit. I got something special for this guy. I'm gonna bust his bunker with the Ex-wife."

"With what?" Tony said and backed up with Abel.

A compartment opened up in Rhodey's suit as a small missile-looking thing popped up and began to power up. The sound vibrated the air. It suddenly shot out and hurled towards Vanko...but bounced off his body and fizzled up in the water.

Abel frowned. "Was that suppose to happen?"

"No..." Rhodey said.

"Hammer tech?" Tony asked.

"...Yeah."

Abel took a deep sigh and lightly pushed Tony aside. She stepped before the man, Ivan Vanko, or more commonly and preferably know as Whiplash now. The man loomed high above her like a black specter that had adapted to the night, using his arc reactor powered, duel electric whips that burned the ground when he cracked them hard. They sounded like cracking thunder barking in her ears, like a power play in an attempt to intimidate her, but Abel didn't move from her spot in front of Tony. She didn't even flinch. In fact, it felt like she was the one standing taller than Whiplash.

"Tony. I want you to leave." Abel said without taking her eyes off the villain.

Her words were like a punch in the gut for him and his body automatically didn't want to obey. "You're kidding. Sweetheart...Abel, I'm not leaving you alone with him." Leave Abel and run away? Leave the women who meant the world to him? Impossible! Not happening.

Abel sucked in a deep breath and fought with her own desire to stay by his side, but the hard reality of it all set deep in her heart. This wasn't a game that you can come back from. This was playing with human life. This was playing...God. The art...the horrible act of taking someone's life isn't something you can forget. The body grows cold and the heart ceases to beat. What you were, and what you could have been. Gone. Everything just disappears in a single breath and nothing. That was a human life. So Strong-willed and brilliant...but ever so weak. She knew that if Tony stayed with her that he'll have to experience the art of making a heart stop. But for now...at this very moment...she wishes for him to stay as he was.

Abel clenched her fist tightly. "Please...I can't deal with him and watch you or Rhodey at the same time. You'll..." She struggled to let these hurtful words fall. "You will only get in my way."

Tony stiffened when she said that but he wasn't angry, upset, or anything like that. If anything, he understood why she was doing this. It was like back then when she faced Obadiah Stane alone for the last time, taking him down with her. Every action that Abel had done up till now...was for his sake.

He let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. He patted a still hesitant Rhodey on the shoulder and made a signal that they were going to leave. "Fine. He's all yours, sweetheart." He admitted defeat. "I love you...but please, please be careful."

Abel turned her face away from Whiplash and smiled at Tony. Just a warm smile with no impending danger in it at all. "And I adore you..." She breathed.

The corner of Tony's lips curled up. His helmet shut back down and his and Rhodey's thrusters engaged. "Kick his ass!" He and Rhodey were nothing but a bright speck in the sky before disappearing behind the cloud line.

Abel let out a little chuckle and watched them flee into the night. "What a night...and I'm still in my evening dress." She mumbled and brushed her hands against the ruined fabric of her dress. Abel then suddenly snapped her head to Whiplash as her voice grew darker. "Didn't I tell you already? I said...I would kill you if you went after Tony again."

Whiplash cocked a grin. "And here we are."

"And here we are..."


	13. Abel Vs Whiplash

**ABEL VS WHIPLASH**

The helmet shut down and Whiplash pulled back his whip, making a crack at Abel. She dodged to the side as the fabric of her dress rips and burns away from the whip. She gasps when she felt the heat touch her skin and frantically patted the fire off her dress before it could get out of control. Her eyes darted up but all she saw was a glowing bright light right before her eyes. Abel let out a shriek and bent all the way back, falling into the cold water that drenched her in seconds.

The crazed man didn't give Abel room to reach and raised his weapon above his head, striking it down like the lightning God himself. It didn't make the contact that he was expecting though. The long cracking wire wrapped around Abel's outstretched hand and began to burn her skin. He watched her rise from the ground while dripping wet with water. Her black dress made it look like she was weeping shadows and resembled a demon of some malice descent.

It was a trap. She planned this.

Abel might have felt a bit panicked at first because he was quick to react to her and immediately attacked once she would dodge. He resembled a wild animal who would pounce on its prey without a plan or warning. His reaction time was quick and too sporadic for her to read into and come up with a countermeasure on the spot. Abel knew though that the only way to hold him down was to grab one of the whips like she did back in Monaco.

The immortal woman never broke fierce eye contact with the man and gripped the weapon tightly. She pulled her arm back ready to yank when Whiplash's free whip crackled hard and made a cut at her side, ripping into her skin. It wrapped her body in this torturous pain that burned and set fire to her clothes. It wasn't enough though. He thought her clothes were on fire because of the smoke. That wasn't it. Before his very eyes once again, he saw her skin began to repair itself faster than it was supposed to heal for a normal person. The burns vanished and the smoke dissipated.

Whiplash felt a hard pull on his weapon and his body was propelled forward in an instant. He plummeted towards Abel as she waited by and began to crack her knuckles. He watched to his utter horror, inability to do anything, as this woman's hand...punctured straight through his armor, shattering the reactor and pierced right through his chest. He felt a cold finger wrap around his heart. Then nothing. At first, he didn't know what to say or do. His body grew cold in an instant his arms ceased to move. He looked down and met the world's most beautiful brown eyes...that did in fact look different now. Right now, right at this very moment. She really didn't look human.

He chuckled weakly. "I see now...for a young woman to have such old eyes." He flinched when Abel yanked her arm free and his body crumbled to the ground and splashed the water on to them.

Abel hunched over him with a face filled with pity. "Did you really think you could have bested me?"

If he could laugh he would, but the strength to do so had long since faded. "I thought...you were inhuman...but I was wrong...you...you are something else entirely." His eyes fell to the ground and were unable to find the strength to look up anymore. "You are...dangerous."

Abel closed her eyes and listened as his heartbeat began to fade. "I have fought kings and their kingdoms and still came to be the last one standing. Not by choice though. But if you think _I'm_ the one who is dangerous...you should meet the rest of my family."

Whiplash's lips curled up though and Abel felt her heart tense up. "You lose." He spat.

Abel frowned when he said that. "What do you..." She froze when this unmistakable beeping noise reached her ears with the heavy smell of explosive chemicals. "You...!" She couldn't react in time and they both were engulfed in a bright light mixed with fierce flames.

* * *

Tony saw what looked to be the ground erupting with flames as all the drones began to detonate and light up the night with fire. He flew through the air and saw Pepper down below standing next to a drone that was beeping its last seconds. He opened his arms and wrapped her tightly up and bailed from the area just as the last drone detonated.

He landed on the rooftop with his suit finally beginning to fizzle out on him and spark. Pepper shrieked and wrestled away from him.

Tony yanked his helmet off and threw it to the ground to have a chance to breathe. "Are you alright!?" He didn't even realize that he shouted, only when Pepper shouted back just as loud.

"Of course I'm not fine!" Pepper's face went white. "Where's Abel? Wasn't she with you?"

"She was dealing with Vanko."

"And you left her there?" Pepper exclaimed.

"Did you think I wanted that?" Tony scanned the area but of course, saw nothing with his human eyes that only saw red. He turned away from Pepper and began to dial for Abel and called into his headset in a panic. "Abel? Abel, you still with us?" He felt his stomach up in his throat when she didn't answer back. "Abe-" He jumped when something crashed down right behind him, about making him have a heart attack. "What?"

Abel stood behind him and was emitting a great deal of steam and smoke from her skin and clothes. Her dress was beyond ruined and was still being patted out, and her skin was half burned away, making her face almost unrecognizable. Tony would have thought it was someone else if she wasn't regenerating right before his very eyes. Pale skin, perfect lips, and fluffy blonde hair. It was her all right.

"Hi," Abel said in her usual chipper voice.

Tony stared wide-eyed at her. "Are you serious? Did you really just stand there and let yourself get blown up?" He raised his voice and swore his heart stopped in his chest upon the sight of her looking like a horror movie reject.

"It's alright. I'm alright." Abel smiled and opened her arms out.

"No. No. I'm actually really upset with you right now." Tony said but Abel trapped him in the tenderest hug he had ever experience.

"No, you're not." She smiled and pulled his head down into her shoulder.

Tony was weak to this and immediately melted into her embrace. He held her tightly and lifted her off the ground, spinning her around. Reckless as she was, and seeing her like that just made his whole body feel like it was dipped in ice water. She was alive though. She was here in his arms. Tony leaned down and kissed her deeply on the lips.

"Are you really having a moment right now?" Rhodey's voice broke the romantic mood.

Tony, now annoyed, turned his head and saw him standing on the same roof. "You can get lost now."

"I was here first. Get a roof." He protested.

"I thought you were out of one-liners?"

"That's the last one."

Abel cracked the biggest smile and leaned her head into the metal plate before looking back up to Rhodey. "You did well back there."

"Damn right I did." Rhodey winked at her and made Abel laugh while Tony only looked offended. "Listen, my car got taken out it the explosion, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?"

Tony frowned. "Not okay. Not okay with that."

"I wasn't asking." Rhodey's helmet slammed back down and he took off into the dark skies.

Abel could feel her heart began to settle down and she finally felt like she could breathe once again. She will never admit it now but she was scared for a while there. With Tony's palladium poisoning, she felt like all the sound on the face of the planet faded away and she was left breathless. She feared that she was going to lose him, and Vanko being here only fed her desperation to never let Tony's life gets taken away if she was standing in front of him.

The immortal just wanted to melt in this cold embrace of iron and forget the world and time. She wanted to revel in this moment with him for as long as possible. Her mind wouldn't allow her to forget it though...for time will always run its bitter course.


	14. Missed Call

**MISSED CALL**

Abel and Tony sat inside an isolated room with files projected on the walls with the SHIELD Logos. Tony looked down at a file in front of him that read 'AVENGERS INITIATIVE PREMILIMIARY REPORT'. He moved to opened it up when Nick Fury grabbed his hand.

"I don't think I want you looking at that." Fury spoke lowly. "I'm not sure it pertains to you anymore. Now, this on the other hand." He held up a new file and handed it to Tony. "Is Agent Romanoff's assessment of you."

Tony gave a glance between Abel and Fury and noticed something. "Doesn't Abel have one?" He pointed out.

Fury shrugged his shoulders. "We did but...she ripped it up right in front of my face."

Abel smiled politely. "Oh, Fury...you have no right to ask for my family's help." Her old eyes held this pressure against Fury. He didn't feel like prying in any more than he had to.

"But we are not here to talk about that." Fury stated and gestured to the file. "Read it."

Tony gave both him and Abel a look before opening his file to read. "'Personality overview. Mr. Stark displays compulsive behavior.' In my own defense, that was last week. 'Prone to self-destructive tendencies.'" He read again. "I was dying. I mean, please. Aren't we all?" He snuck a glance at Abel. "Well...at least some of us are. 'Textbook narcissism'?" That got him confused and he had to look at Abel to even confirm if that was true.

Abel shrugged. "Pretty accurate if you ask me."

"If you say so. Okay, here it is. 'Recruitment assessment for Avenger Initiative. Iron Man? Yes.'" He slapped the file shut and held his hands up. "I gotta think about it."

"Read on." Fury said.

Tony, though confused, lifted the file back up to read with Abel looking over his shoulder. "'Tony Stark not... Not recommended.' That doesn't make any sense. How can you approve me but not approve me?"

Abel took the file from him to make sure he didn't miss anything. "I'm confused as well."

"I got a new ticker. I'm doing right by Abel. I'm in a...stable?" He looked at Abel to make they were still on good terms. Since it felt like their relationship was put through the wringer a lot last week. "Are we stable?"

Abel smiled and patted him on the cheek and continued to look at his file. "We are doing perfectly fine, Tony."

Tony took a breath. "See. I'm in a stable relationship with an immortal. That has to be saying something."

"Correction." Fury cut in. "You're in a stable relationship with the most well-adjusted person on the planet, who just so happens to be immortal. Which leads up to believe at this juncture we'd only like to use you as a consultant." He held his hand out for Tony to shake and close the deal.

Tony does shake his hand but clasped his other one on top of Fury's. "You can't afford me. Much less Abel." He gestured for her to get up too.

Abel burst out laughing and closed the file. "And there you have it, Fury. Have a nice life." She turned to leave when Tony spoke up once again.

"Then again, I will waive my customary retainer in exchange for a small favor. Rhodey and I are being honored in Washington and we need a presenter."

Abel stopped and looked over her shoulder giving Fury a look with a raised eyebrow.

Fury sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

Abel stood back and watched with the biggest smile on her face as she clapped for Tony. He stood beside Rhodey while Stern was about to present them with medals.

"It is my honor to be here today to present these distinguished awards to Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes and Mr. Tony Stark, who is, of course, a national treasure." He said and picked up the small medals.

Tony could easily spot Abel in the crowd when he heard her laugh at the comment. He gave her a sly grin and winked, and of course, she waved back with a genuine smile held to her pink lips. She felt her heart racing with enjoyment.

Stern pinned the medal to Rhodey first. "Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel, for such an exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this."

Rhodey nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Stern then moved on to Tony. "Mrs. Stark. Thank you for such an exceptionally distinguished performance. You deserve this." He pinned him with the medal but Tony flinched in pain when he did. "Oh, sorry. Funny how annoying a little prick can be, isn't it?" He said with a sly grin

They turned around and posed for a picture, and Abel couldn't help to feel beyond proud. She smiled warmly and clapped her hands, unknown to her about her phone ringing in her pocket. The screen lit up brightly with the ID on the front in big, bold, and intimidating letters that could, if possible, bring the whole world to a standstill.

The ID read 'Cain'.


	15. We're Putting Together A Team

**WE'RE PUTTING TOGETHER A TEAM**

General Ross sunk down in defeat in a stained old bar that smelled of old beer and even older cigarettes that seeped into his skin and his drink.

"Reload." He slapped his empty glass down and was given another one right off the bat. He chucked it down like it was water. "Reload."

The door to the bar opened up and two figures walked in, totally overshadowed by the blinding sunlight that came from the doorway.

"Mmm, the smell of stale beer and defeat. Y'know, I hate to say 'I told you so,' General, but that Super-Soldier program was put on ice for a reason." Tony walked up to the bar with his arm linked with Abel.

Ross looked up with his hazy eyes. "Stark."

"General."

"You always wear such nice suits." Ross's slurred his words before looking to Abel. "So you're the new girlfriend everyone's going crazy about."

Abel smiled politely. "Abel Bamlett, sir." She nodded her head slightly.

"Abel?" He gave a snicker. "That's a pretty old name. Ya mean like Cain and Abel. Book of Genesis?" Ross scoffed and went back to his drink.

A low chuckle echoed from Abel's throat. "Yeah, I am...Abel. But sir...would if we were to tell you that we were putting together a team?"

Ross eye them both like they were crazy. "Who's 'We'?"


	16. Macy

**MACY**

' _The Price of Living_ ' by Macy Clark. It was New York's bestseller that only been out for a month and has already taken the world by storm for its tale of a woman's survival through human trafficking. The local library was flooded to the brim with people carrying books in their hands and walking up to the table where the writer herself greeted them.

Macy smiled widely and handed back the book to the eager teenager before moving on. "Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much." She glanced away from the crowd of people and reached for her water bottle behind her as the next person stepped up in line.

"It's quite an inspiring story. Where did you come up with such a tale?" The woman next in line said in a poetic/melody-like voice while setting her book on the table.

Macy chuckled and turned back around, keeping her head on the book. "I actually didn't." She said and flipped to the last page of the book that had only seven words on it, reading: 'To my friend Abel at the bar.' "I met this girl in the bar, you see, and she told me this story about her experience." She quickly scribbled down her name. "Wish I could talk to her more because...I never meet someone who seemed so...cool yet mysterious at the same time." She snickered with the memories. "Now who should I make this out to?"

"Abel."

Macy froze and stabbed her pen into the paper, making a massive ink splat that bled through the white pages. She slowly lifted her head up and saw a pair of familiar brown eyes that adapted perfectly with her gentle smile.

Abel tilted her head down and smiled. "Hello, Macy. I must say...it's quite an interesting tale."

Macy felt her lips began to quiver. She suddenly leaped up from her chair and ran around the table, locking her arms around the gentlewoman and hugging her tightly. Abel could only giggle in response.


	17. Dangerous

**DANGEROUS**

Coulson drove through the desert and kicked up mounds of sand that formed a dusk cloud throughout his drive. He came up to a cliffside, parked his car, and got out. Down below him was a large crater that was surrounded by the locals, and at the heart of it was something that looked like a hammer.

He took off his sunglasses and pulled out his phone. "Sir," He chatted. "We've found it, but that's not all. I've heard from Abel that..." A nervus tingle came to his voice when he glanced off through the endless plains that once held silence and peace, now noisy and busy. "Cain seems to be in the area too."

* * *

The phone dialed and rang through the very same desert as this harsh, sandy wind began to pick up and hit against the expensive Bugatti car that was parked right outside a small town. The door opened and you could hear music from the radio playing as a woman stepped out with her phone in her hand. It dialed and dialed but no answer was going to come, leaving the lady with no choice but to hang up and toss her phone back in her car.

_~You're an angel, looking into my eyes.~_

_~I can see you, travel back into time.~_

She sighed deeply and leaned her back against the hot car that was exposed to the sun. She reached for her sunglasses and pulled them off her face, sticking them in her shirt. Her eyes were a unique hazel color that mixed with blue and green with specks of gold in them. Her skin was a healthy sun-kissed color and her lips full and darkly colored with a deep red lipstick. Her hair looked to be either made out of golden string or honey that was long and pulled back into a high ponytail that danced in the sandy air. She was dressed in dark blue jeans with ankle boots, a black tang-top, and a purple-ish red coat.

The wind picked up once again but once it struck this woman, it ricocheted right off her and caused a mad ripple throughout the sandy desert that soon fell silent. Not a single bug or animal dared to move, much less breathe. They stayed quiet for this powerful woman who stood before them. No one, not even SHIELD themselves could fathom just the sheer power this woman had, just by being in the same area. The air was heavy, heavy like someone wrapping their finger around your throat and preventing you from breathing just because of the fear that sank into the core of your heart.

_~Still, they say you hide a devil inside.~_

_~You are dangerous.~_

Cain groaned to herself and looked up to the burning sun. "So Abel can't even spare the time to have a chat with her older sister, huh." Her voice was low and firm, like the calm before the storm. "Tony Stark..." She spoke the name with a tinge of disgust in her voice. "I never really liked that man."

_~So am I!~_


End file.
